MotoGP Austin – The curves speak to us: could Marc Márquez have won?

Could Marc Márquez have won the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas and thus continued his streak of his 7 victories acquired in Austin? This is the big question that we have the right to ask ourselves at the end of a race rich in emotions.

For those who have already forgotten, the Grand Prix was won by Enea Bastianini at the end of a race as intelligent as it was clear. Qualified in 5th position, the Gresini driver passed the first turn tied for 3rd with Francesco Bagnaia before overtaking the latter before the end of the first lap. He needs 11 more laps to pass Jorge Martín and 4 more before taking command at Jack Miller, 5 laps from the checkered flag. The fastest in the race, the Italian driver achieves 2'03.521 on the 14th of the 20 laps but is almost always just as fast at the end of the race...

For its part, Marc Marquez starts from 9th position but finds himself last at the first turn!

From then on, the Spanish champion made a comeback as he knows the secret, ending up in 6th place, 6,6 seconds behind the winner after having overtaken 18 drivers and missing at least one of his braking!
Just reading these figures, we sense that the Honda driver could actually have won the race, especially since his failed start due to mechanics caused him to lose 4,5 seconds in the first lap, traffic jams included: 2 seconds lost to overtake 18 drivers clearly shows that the man was the fastest.

Or almost, since his best time, achieved on the 13th lap, is 2'03.553, 32 thousandths slower than that of Enea Bastianini. Likewise, the shape of its curve could lead one to believe that Marc Márquez had perhaps exhausted his rear tire at the end of the race because of his climb, since the gap with the leader remained around 4,4 seconds for a long time until two thirds of the race. This is undoubtedly partially true, even if it corresponds to exceeding Jorge Martín then to the impressive defense against Fabio Quartararo. Moreover, from this moment on, the curves of the two drivers clearly illustrate their similar rhythm.

In view of this analysis, and even if Enea Bastianini was the fastest in the race, yes, we can think that Marc Marquez would undoubtedly have won the latter if he had not experienced a technical problem at the start, especially since the Spaniard once again proved to us on Sunday that he has this grain of madness which contrasts with the perfect strategy of the Italian: in combat in close combat, we can assume that his attacks could have destabilized the Rimini pilot. We can disagree, like Chicho Lorenzo…

Furthermore, when consulting the table of the best laps in the race, we note with some surprise that the third is… Maverick Vinales !

 

The Aprilia rider is the only one to be in 2'03.5 like Enea Bastianini et Marc Márquez, but, starting 14th on the grid, the Catalan had a visibly bumpy race before finishing 10th.

Finally, we will note one of the particularities of the Austin circuit, where the starting line is located very close to a very slow corner. As a result, the drivers lose much less time in the first lap than on the other circuits: only 6 tenths for Jack Miller, perhaps a record!