Marc Marquez crashes again but insists “I controlled myself”

The Repsol Honda rider, who backed off and collected data on the way to a risk-free 18th in the wet Saturday Sprint, had pledged to push harder if he felt better in the dry main event.

Starting 14th, Marquez suffered an early setback when he lost a wing due to contact with Franco Morbidelli after just a few corners.

Nonetheless, Marquez worked his way up to tenth place before being passed by Ducati’s Enea Bastianini as rain drops began falling in the closing stages.

The Spaniard was then caught out by the conditions and lack of downforce in the fast Maggotts/Becketts section, clipping the back of Bastianini with six laps to go.

Marquez was out on the spot while Bastianini fell soon after as a result of bike damage.

It was Marquez’s fourth crash from a MotoGP this year, having failed to start the other grands prix due to injury.

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Yet the eight-time world championship insisted he was, “Happy about the weekend, because the target was to rebuild a bit the confidence and try to find a base.

“I rebuilt the confidence, but to find a base, still we need more races, more tracks and different situations. But the weekend, it was a solid weekend, stable.

“I also controlled myself. It's true that you will say, 'you crashed in the race'. It's true, but it was a very unlucky situation that can happen in racing.

“But the thing is that I broke the wing on the first lap, so I was losing a lot on acceleration, and the way to stop the bike was very difficult.

“Then I said, ‘OK, keep calm’, I was riding in my rhythm, nothing more, that I had in the practice. Mid 2'01. And then in one point it started to rain a bit.

“Bastianini overtook me, and I said, ‘OK’, because today I didn't want to risk more with the rain. But when we arrived at that turn I saw that it was a bit more wet, and I started to slide a bit.

“So I said, ‘OK, I go to the left side, to save the crash or the contact’. But then also on that moment, Bastianini had a small moment and go also to the left, and then I didn't have time to avoid the situation.

“I think I had a small contact with him. We crashed, but it was the kind of crash that I don't lose confidence.”

Battered by accidents and injuries in the opening part of the season, Marquez felt his 'new approach' of only pushing when he feels confident with the struggling RCV paid dividends.

“The approach of this weekend was completely different. You saw: I forgot the times, I forgot everything, and I was just riding with my feeling. If I don't feel it, like in the Sprint race, I was not pushing. If I feel a bit more like today, I push more,” he said.

“For example in the warm up, the feeling was good so I pushed. But my target was to try to do a weekend without crashes for overriding your limit.

“Today's crash was not from overriding, it was an unlucky situation. But I was not riding over the limits of the bike. So it's the correct approach I think to build the base and then from that point try to build for the future.”

Another miserable race for the Japanese factories saw Morbidelli finish 14th for Yamaha and Takaaki Nakagami the top Honda in 16th place for LCR.