Marc Marquez explains Portimao crashes | "No stress, waiting for my moment”

It came to a dramatic conclusion, with a trio of practice crashes along the way, but Marc Marquez’s second MotoGP event as a Gresini Ducati rider saw another step in speed.

With no pre-season testing at the circuit, the first challenge at Portimao was to determine the effectiveness of his winter base set-up.

That box was ticked when the eight-time world champion was fastest in the dusty opening practice session, third in the afternoon and then fourth on Saturday morning.

“My foot slipped off the foodrest!”

Indeed, Marquez appeared to be among the very fastest everywhere except the final sector, notably including the home straight.

But after completing winter testing with only a single fall from his GP23, Marquez hit the ground on Friday afternoon, qualifying, warm-up and then the race clash with Francesco Bagnaia.

The Bagnaia ‘racing incident’ aside, which occurred when the Italian optimistically tried to re-pass, Marquez put his accidents down to a lack of experience with the bike.

“A good weekend. I mean, we improved the speed, which was the most important,” said Marquez, who rode from eighth to second in the Saturday Sprint and had just overtaken Bagnaia for fifth place when they tangled late in the grand prix.

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“It’s true that I crashed three times in practice, but all three crashes were - we cannot say stupid crashes - but crashes that I can avoid with more kilometres [experience].

“Why? Because the qualifying fall was due to engaging the rear device too early, which is still something that needs to come in a more automatic way.

“Then in the warm up, my foot slipped off the foodrest! And then I crashed, but without pushing because it was only my second lap. I was cruising but just my foot slid and boom, crash. And on Friday the same.”

“I was calm during the race”

After being the only GP23 rider in the top ten during the Sprint, Marquez was on course to finish three places (and over ten seconds) clear of VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi in the grand prix.

“I was calm during the race,” said the former Repsol Honda rider. “It’s true the feeling was not the best with the front tyre. But no stress. I was just waiting for my moment.

“My moment arrived in the last laps, where I would start to be faster and faster, and I was even improving my lap times because I feel better with used tyres.

“But then I arrived at turn five and I crashed [with Bagnaia]…”

Prior to the Bagnaia incident, both of the multi-time MotoGP champions had been overtaken by rookie Pedro Acosta, who finished on the podium in only his second premier-class grand prix.

Asked about the difference between learning a new MotoGP bike as a teenage rookie and switching machines as a 31-year-old, Marquez replied:

“When you are younger, you learn faster. But especially when you arrive in a new category, everything is new. You don't have habits.

“If you check, [my] mistakes arrive on the time attack. Why? Because time attack, you just go by instinct. It’s what I said in Qatar. When I go by instinct, still there are some automatic things that I forget [to do correctly on the Ducati].

“But these things will arrive. Because every time I feel better and better.”

The Portimao DNF means that Marquez has slipped to sixth in the world championship, 33 points from Sunday’s winner Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati).

On the bright side, unlike a year ago when he speared into the side of Miguel Oliveira, injuring them both, Marquez leaves Portimao without any physical consequences following the Bagnaia incident.

“No, no, just an impact on the shoulder, but nothing important,” said Marquez, who was checked in the medical centre after bringing the bike back in 16th.

Round three takes place at COTA, where Marquez was unbeaten as a Repsol Honda rider from 2013 until 2019, then added a seventh victory in 2021.