Alex Marquez: “I was sh*tting my pants!” | Marini “Not dangerous, just scary”

With hindsight Marquez, who was under pressure from Luca Marini and Johann Zarco, admitted it might have been better to settle for a top five.

But the scene of his downfall, the apex of turn two, was also the last place he expected to lose the front of his GP22.

“I was pushing in a good way until that point,” said Marquez, who had crashed out of Saturday’s sprint after contact with Brad Binder. “I was suffering already a little bit with the front tyre, but not at that point.

“I was expecting to lose the front everywhere apart from there. So I was too confident in that point. I got in a little bit more [tight to the kerb], I touched the white line also a little bit more, there’s a little bump and I lost the front.

“A shame because we were fighting for a podium. Maybe today, I needed to say, ‘OK, take a top five’. But it was a podium and I tried for it."

Alex Marquez: “I was sh*tting my pants!”

Earlier in the race, Marquez had a big scare in the turn 1 braking zone when, unable to scrub off enough speed, he was forced to try and weave between brother Marc and Luca Marini, then inside KTM’s Jack Miller.

After running a little wide at turn one, the #73 made contact with Miller as he pulled his Ducati back towards the racing line. Both fortunately remained upright.

“It was really, really strange,” Marquez said. “But it’s what we always say, the slipstream absorbs you.

“I was not really late on the brakes because, as you saw, I didn't turn too far [from the apex]. And I was braking with the same pressure as always.

“But when you lose all the downforce and have two bikes [ahead]. It was like impossible. ‘Vroom’ [I went between them].

“I said ‘f**k’! I was shitting my pants, honestly!”

Luca Marini: “Not so dangerous, just scary”

VR46 Ducati rider Marini admitted it had been a scary moment as Marquez whizzed past, but was impressed by how he then got the bike stopped.

“With the slipstream in the braking of Turn 1, it's very difficult. Also because the bike starts to shake a lot," Marini said.

“I didn't expect that he could stop the bike, so he made a fantastic ‘pass’. Also the soft rear tyre helped him a lot, because I saw him pushing with the rear brake, try to keep the bike [from going too wide], and it worked.

“It was not so dangerous. Just scary, because it was really fast.”

Jack Miller: “Have a gander before cutting back”

Miller agreed it’s easy to get caught out under braking from the highest top speeds of the season but wasn’t pleased with the way Marquez tried to cut back after running wide, initiating their contact.

"If you get a double slipstream and then you lift the rear going into turn one, yeah, it's an easy thing to do," said the Australian.

“But you generally always have a gander at where you are coming back into. It's not like he missed the line by half a metre [at turn 1], he missed it by three. And then cut back, very similar to what he did on the first corner [of the Sprint].

“Nothing much I could do. I was just trying to avoid the carnage. It is what it is. He stayed on the bike, so that’s a positive. And I didn't get a Long Lap penalty, so that's positive too!”

Binder had received a Long Lap penalty after contact with Marquez sent the Ducati rider down at turn one of the Sprint.

Marini and Miller went on to finish fourth and seventh respectively.