MotoGP Assen J2 Marc Márquez: “Quartararo did an extraordinary lap”

At the end of this MotoGP qualifying session at Assen, we witnessed a rare scene: Marc Márquez did not park his Honda in the parc ferme bringing together the three riders positioned on the first row of the starting grid. And for good reason: he finished fourth in the exercise. He explains why...

The world champion and leader of the general classification, Marc Márquez, had to settle for fourth place at Assen. A performance which he has nothing to be ashamed of, however, because he worked hard to achieve it. Going so far as to make one of his secret rescues. Here he is 0.714s behind the poleman fabio quartararo which makes him forget his youth. The Frenchman is in fact now the youngest driver in the history of the premier category to have lined up in two successive top positions.

Certainly defeated, Mark Máask nevertheless admits to having managed a not so simple situation and in his best interests: “ you can see that the Yamaha and Suzuki have advantages here when it comes to direction changes. Ducati and Honda riders are definitely heavier " said Márquez. " Our bike is exhausting to ride, but this track is demanding for all riders. I feel good, my pace is good. This is the most important thing ».

« In FP4 we found the best solutions, we tried two different rear tires and we prepared well for the race. Of course, Quartararo has had an extraordinary ride, but we are not that far behind. Yamaha has slight advantages. That's true, but we need to analyze and look now ».

He specifies : " In qualifying, driving is very different from racing conditions with a full tank. I wasn't able to attack 100%. And if you're not as confident in qualifying, you need to be careful. Because here the speed is very high, we have two consecutive races, so we have to keep the risk within limits ».

« We missed the first row but we are in fourth place. We tried a different strategy, we wanted to attack in two sets. In the first, I did two fast laps. In the second I wanted to chase away all the opponents, but when I attacked, Dovi was there. I had a good lap but I finished fourth like in the first round. Dovi drove slowly at the end, so I caught up with him. Everything didn't work perfectly in the second heat, but I wouldn't have done better than third anyway. The strategy doesn't always work ».

For Sunday's race, Marc Márquez announcement : " If Yamaha wants to win again, Assen is the right track to do it”.

MotoGP Assen J2: times

1	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	Yamaha	1'32.017
2	12	Maverick VIÑALES	Yamaha	1'32.157	0.140	0.140
3	42	Alex RINS	Suzuki	1'32.458	0.441	0.301
4	93	Marc MÁRQUEZ	Honda	1'32.731	0.714	0.273
5	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1'33.085	1.068	0.354
6	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'33.228	1.211	0.143
7	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ducati	1'33.282	1.265	0.054
8	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	Honda	1'33.295	1.278	0.013
9	21	Frank MORBIDELLI	Yamaha	1'33.314	1.297	0.019
10	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'33.323	1.306	0.009
11	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'33.692	1.675	0.369
12	44	Pol ESPARGARÓ	KTM	1'33.762	1.745	0.070
		Q1 Results:
Q2	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'32.710
Q2	44	Pol ESPARGARÓ	KTM	1'33.170	0.460	0.460
13	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1'33.221	0.511	0.051
14	46	Valentino ROSSI	Yamaha	1'33.466	0.756	0.245
15	41	Aleix ESPARGARÓ	Aprilia	1'33.547	0.837	0.081
16	17	Karel ABRAHAM	Ducati	1'33.583	0.873	0.036
17	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	KTM	1'33.706	0.996	0.123
18	5	johann zarco	KTM	1'33.776	1.066	0.070
19	55	Hafiz Syahrin	KTM	1'33.869	1.159	0.093
20	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	1'33.960	1.250	0.091
21	53	Tito RABAT	Ducati	1'34.580	1.870	0.620