Coming third in this German Grand Prix after having had to let Marc Márquez Jonas Folger leave, Dani Pedrosa explained why during the post-race press conference which also brought together the two aforementioned.
As usual, in order to avoid any “sensationalist” journalistic interpretation, we offer you a “raw” translation of all of Marc Marquez's remarks, without any formatting.
Dani, you were there from the start and then you seemed very comfortable with Marc and Jonas. But you ended up a little alone...
" Yes, it's true. I am very satisfied with my start, I started well even if my reaction time was not very good, but then my acceleration was good and I was able to recover my position with Petrucci and go second at the first corner. Then, the first two rounds were really good. I was behind Marc and I felt comfortable. It's a long race and it's good to get off to a good start. I don't remember the lap well, maybe number four or five, Jonas overtook me and I went Hum! (mimics then laughter). I was like, “OK, don’t worry,” and I stayed behind and tried to follow them. I tried to see where he was faster but I could see that suddenly I was skating a lot. I suddenly went from having very good grip to not so much grip. I then said to myself “don't worry, the race is long, we normally skate a lot on this track but you can manage this skating to achieve good times”. But no, with each lap I lost more and more because they were going very fast. So I couldn't manage to go faster, like during the tests, and at that moment I understood that I had to stay in this position. I tried to see if I could go faster by steering, but every time I had problems opening the throttle, especially on the left side. So I was losing a lot of time in the (left) turns. In the end I'm happy because it was a difficult weekend because of the changing conditions, and we were fast most of the time, so that's positive. »
You follow your path in an incredible championship…
" Yes, it's true. You can see it. This championship is difficult to anticipate and tell what will happen in each race. I think in the races that are still to be done, it is possible to go fast or not as fast as you might expect. Today we have Jonas here on the podium with incredible pace. So you never know. You must be ready for any situation. Now we have this break, we will try to have five or six days off, but of course we will try to work and be strong for when we come back after the break. »
How did you find the left side of the rear tire?
“I don't know what happened to me in the race, because this morning I used a worn tire from the day before, much older, but I was able to be faster than today Today in the race with a new tire. So the problem was I had a big drop after five rounds and then it just kept going down, down, down. This morning, using yesterday's tire, I had a fairly comfortable pace and not this feeling of slipping on the side of the tire. »
German Grand Prix results:
1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 40m 59.525s
2. Jonas Folger GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 41m 2.835s
3. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 41m 11.071s
4. Maverick Vinales ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 41m 13.778s
5. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 41m 14.505s
6. Alvaro Bautista ESP Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP16) 41m 16.059s
7. Aleix Espargaro ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 41m 19.261s
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 41m 19.713s
9. Johann Zarco FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 41m 20.663s
10. Cal Crutchlow GBR LCR Honda (RC213V) 41m 23.735s
11. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 41m 25.184s
12. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP17) 41m 31.065s
13. Pol Espargaro ESP Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 41m 31.704s
14. Bradley Smith GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 41m 35.978s
15. Jack Miller AUS Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 41m 37.296s
16. Mika Kallio FIN Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 41m 37.377s
17. Karel Abraham CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP15) 41m 38.848s
18. Tito Rabat ESP Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 41m 40.715s
19. Loris Baz FRA Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP15) 41m 59.375s
20. Scott Redding GBR Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 42m 1.189s
21. Alex Rins ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)* 42m 1.220s
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 129 points
2 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 124
3 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 123
4 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 119
5 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 103
6 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 84
7 Jonas FOLGER-Yamaha 71
8 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 66
9 Jorge LORENZO-Ducati 65
10 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 64
11 Alvaro BAUTISTA-Ducati 44
12 Jack MILLER-Honda 41
13 Scott REDDING-Ducati 33
14 Aleix ESPARGARO-Aprilia 32
15 Loris BAZ-Ducati 31
16 Andrea IANNONE 28
17 Tito RABAT 23
18 Hector BARBERA 21
19 Karel ABRAHAM 20
20 Pol ESPARGARO 14
21 Bradley SMITH 8
22 Alex RINS 7
23 Michele PIRRO 7
24 Sam LOWES 2
25 Sylvain GUINTOLI 1
Photo credit: MotoGP.com
