After finishing on the second step of the podium in the Sprint Race, Marc Marquez didn't geet beyond a 12th position in the Malaysian GP. But, nonetheless, he's satisfied with what he achieved.
"It was a really good weekend, and I'm very happy. It's clear that, if you make a mistake on Sunday, it looks like a disaster, but it's not. I want to try and take the positive from it," he said.
The pivotal moment of his race was when, with 13 laps to go, he fell at Turn 15. "At least I got the bike back and was able to finish the race. Even if I had tried, I still couldn't have fought with the top two.
What happened? Passing the finish line, I saw Bastianini st +2"5. I braked neither late nor harder and fell.
Unlike in Buriram, I don't understand why, but that's what happens sometimes. I realize that I made a mistake, but I got back on track and, even though the bike was damaged, and I couldn't shift, I tried to finish anyway, out of respect for the team and to gain some points," he explained.
Before finishing in the gravel, the rider from Cervera enjoyed a good show. "I bought the ticket for the front row, and I paid dearly for it," he said, jokingly.
"I was able to watch a good fight between Bagnaia and Martin, and the surprising thing is that, although they were battling, their times were very fast. I lost the slipstream, but the others weren't able to follow them either."
"Honestly, even if I expected a Pecco like that, who started out with the intention of winning, Jorge surprised me because he took so many risks, and they even touched each other on the straight. Who's going to win the title? It would be wrong to say that the Pramac rider has it in his grasp.
You can never tell in sports, especially knowing that we'll be racing in November in Europe," his reasoned. "The defending champion has taken home ten race wins, proving he's fast, but Martin has made fewer mistakes so far.
When it comes to speed, they're similar. Why so many mistakes? It happens when the other guy creates problems."
The overall pace of today's race wasn't very high. "It was really hot and, when there's more than fifty degrees on the asphalt, you can be even half a second slower in terms of race pace.
Then, the initial duel between Pecco and Jorge slowed down. You can end up going slower than in the previous edition, and maybe the slightly harder Michelin construction in the middle part may have influenced it."
When asked if he was surprised by the lack of strategy on the part of the rider from Piedmont who, to get help from Bastianini, could've slowed down, the 31-year-old argued:
"The difference between the two and the others is huge. Just think that Enea was at ten seconds. You can slow down the race by two or three seconds, but not by ten."
Finally, he spoke about selecting Montmelo as the venue for the grand finale of the season. "I would've preferred another track, but I'll give it my all. The weather conditions could prove tricky since it's November."
