Marc Marquez’s Qatar confession: “I gave up because I saw the chance to crash”

Marc Marquez admitted he stopped pushing for the podium at the Qatar MotoGP due to concerns about his front tyre.

On his Ducati grand prix debut, Marquez secured a P4 finish (after P5) in the sprint, having pressurised Pramac’s Jorge Martin who clung on to finish third.

Marquez later revealed that he stopped trying to overtake Martin in the final stages to avoid crashing.

“The last two laps I gave up because I saw the chance to crash,” he was quoted by Motorsport.

“And the chance to take two more points, three more points…

"I preferred to finish fourth and wait for two weeks in Portimao."

Marquez detailed his performance which concluded by managing his front tyre over the finish line.

"We analysed with the team a lot of things to try to manage the start, it was better today," he said.

"So, this helped the race a lot. Then I was able to manage well the tyres.

"The thing was yesterday I struggled and today most of the riders were managing the rear, but I was managing the front more than the rear because every year with the other bike [the Honda] I was struggling a bit with the front tyre in this race track.

"Anyway, I need to improve my riding style in some points because still I'm not riding well. But today the race was constant, solid.

"I did my attack in the last eight laps, and when I did the attack it was when I started to push more with the front and I finished the front tyre.”

Marquez’s first round racing with the GP23 was largely hailed a success after a fifth-place and fourth-place finish in the sprint and grand prix respectively.

The bad news for him is that Francesco Bagnaia, the reigning champion, is already leading the standings after winning the first Sunday race.

And Bagnaia’s nearest challenger last year, Martin, won the sprint to signal his own intention to resume battling for top spot this season.