Alex Marquez admitted that he thought “too much about getting on the podium again” before crashing out of the Alcaniz Grand Prix, though declared his mistake “will make me stronger.”
Marquez looked to be for a third consecutive podium finish during the early segment of the second event staged at the Motorland Aragon venue, having battled from his tenth place starting position to be running fourth behind Joan Mir at the half-way mark of the contest.
The factory Honda racer was the only rider in the field to opt for the more resilient hard front tyre, a strategy looked to be paying off as he inched closer to the rear of Mir’s Suzuki.
Disaster soon struck though as he lost the front at Turn 2 with only nine laps remaining, sending Marquez sliding off into the gravel to record his first premier class retirement having taken the chequered flag in every race run this season.
Marquez conceded that the crash was “my mistake completely”, explaining that he tried too hard to recover time lost to Mir after getting stuck behind Avintia’s Johann Zarco earlier in the encounter.
“It was my mistake completely, I lost a little bit of time with (Johann) Zarco so I needed to make up the gap to Mir, and I was probably trying to catch too fast and was a bit optimistic,” said Marquez.
“I was thinking too much about getting on the podium today because I thought it was possible, but I made a rookie mistake again.
“Overall I am proud of the last few weekends, I’ve had two podiums in a row and was again fighting for it today, so the promise is there but we need to be more realistic heading to the Valencia.”
The reigning Moto2 world champion revealed that he told himself prior to Turn 2 every tour to “stay calm” entering the bend, but “forgot” on the lap he went down.
“For sure from now on if we crash while fighting for 15th we need to be worried, but if I crash fighting for the podium this is another thing,” continued Marquez.
“For sure the limits are closer and it’s easier to make a mistake (towards front of field), it’s always tricky here and I was saying to myself every lap ‘stay calm here’ (at Turn 2), but that lap I forgot to say it and then I crashed.
“I apologised to the team as it was my mistake, but I think this can make me stronger and I will head to Valencia 100% motivated to achieve a great result.”
