He was therefore the guest of the post-qualification press conference which also brought together Maverick Vinales, Jorge Lorenzo, Sam Lowes and Enea Bastianini.

As usual, in order to avoid any abusive journalistic interpretation, we offer you a “raw” translation of the entirety of the Honda driver’s words.

Marc Marquez: “Pole position is of course important for tomorrow because, here, the first corner is tricky, but yes, the most important thing is the pace in FP4. I felt really good there. We will see for tomorrow, because it seems that it will be a little cloudy and that the temperatures will drop a little, and then, my question mark will be the front tire, because I feel good with the hard with these temperatures, but it will be necessary see with lower temperatures. Anyway, I feel good with the bike, I feel ready for the race, and as I already said on Thursday, this circuit is one of my favorites and we have to try to attack this a little bit. weekend. »

A good afternoon but a horrible morning with all these accidents…

" Yes Yes Yes. This morning I had a big crash with a little pain in my shoulder but it's OK to ride the bike. And yes, the fall was strange, there was confusion with the yellow flag because it was too late and when I realized there was a yellow flag, I tried to brake and I stuck the front. And I crashed, and yes, Nicky and the track staff were lucky because finally they were able to run a little bit and be safe. »

Tomorrow, the weather can still play an important role...

“(laughs) Every race, it’s like that. This year, one of the most beautiful things about this championship is this; maybe today I am the fastest and tomorrow, with lower temperatures, maybe I will have problems with the tires. Yes, it's something that we have to analyze well today, check tomorrow which tire will be the best with the temperature we will have, but the good thing is that I tried all the tires this weekend, and I feel good with the V and the hardest. It's very similar so I'll hang one with lower temperatures and the other with higher temperatures. »

Tomorrow, is your strategy to escape from the start?

" We will see. We have to check the temperatures, we have to check the feeling, because like I said, sometimes this year, with the Michelins, after the Moto2 race, the feeling can change with different temperatures. So we have to realize this during the race. But yes, if the feeling is like today, why not?
I think we are now in a good situation, I said it on Thursday, it is one of the circuits on the calendar where we have to attack a little more, and we will do it.
At the moment we are having a very good weekend and we will try to finish it in a good way tomorrow, because two years ago I was also very fast on Friday and Saturday, but I did not finish in a good way. »

How proud are you of your little brother?

“(laughs). Alright. I'm very proud, because you know, pressure is something difficult to deal with, and being my brother is one thing, being Moto3 champion is another thing, and the start of the season was very difficult for him. I tried to help him, but in the end it's so hard when you're in this situation...
But now it seems to be getting better and better and the most important thing is to prepare well for next year. This year, if he can get on a podium, that would be great, but he needs to continue this way. »

Are you saying the yellow flag was waved too late?

" Yes. You know, at Silverstone in 2013, it was completely my fault, but since that time I always slow down when I see a yellow flag, even if I'm on my best lap, because that's something I realized to be dangerous. Most of the time, I only make the same mistake once, no more. but this time I spoke with Mike Webb and Race Direction, and the problem was that in the previous corner, where normally you should have a yellow flag, it wasn't there. At first I said I hadn't seen him, but they checked with the cameras and he wasn't there. Then, when I came to braking, I intended to overtake Pol because I hadn't seen the slightest yellow flag. Then when I realized there was a yellow flag, I had to brake more to make sure I didn't pass it, but the problem was that I locked the front.
So it was bad luck. »

Do you think Valentino will be able to fight with you tomorrow and put pressure on the championship or are you a little relaxed?

“That is of course one of the objectives. In some races we struggled a lot more and we have a good situation here. So one of the goals for tomorrow is victory, but the second is to try to finish ahead of Valentino because it will be much better for the championship. But like I said, if you go out (on track) and you don't have the feeling, then it's better to (just) finish the race. »