Marc Marquez will never change and in a way, that's good for the show. In this French Grand Prix, he confirmed that he could single-handedly maintain the illusion that the Honda was not the worst motorcycle in the contemporary creation of Grands Prix, but reality caught up with him in view of the arrival, when reason should have convinced him to let go of this crazy ambition for a podium that he still gave a glimpse of. The fact remains that he prefers to fall with honors than to be satisfied with accessions. He didn't want to finish tenth, he said. Nakagami, his distinguished colleague, finished ninth at Le Mans. Was he attacking him with this mention?
Exhausted, the leather grated, and its Honda good for breakage, Marc Marquez did not appear a priori like a winner's face when taking stock of a breathtaking French Grand Prix. And yet, his first words were… “ I'm really happy with today's race ". An impression which requires explanations which he does not hesitate to give: “ I was able to ride like I hadn't done in a long time and I was able to really enjoy being on the bike. Unfortunately the end result wasn't what we wanted but I fought the whole race and pushed myself to the limit ».
He specifies, at the risk of putting himself at odds with recent events which have left their mark: “ It was difficult for me to overtake, I had to do it in places with too much risk sometimes. I had fun. I'm tired, I went to the limit as the whole race saw, but it was the only way I could be there. I'd rather do a race like that and finish like that than tenth ».
« We had a very busy weekend and a podium would have been a great reward, especially for my team who continued to work to the maximum » adds the eight-time world champion. “We still have a little bit to do to find more to fight like this every weekend ". About his accident, he said: “ I crashed at turn 7 but it started from turn 6 where I was shaking a lot and I couldn't find the perfect trajectory. The problem is that in the last two laps I saw the podium so close... I knew that if Jorge Martin passed me, it was most likely that Zarco would also pass me on the straight., and I didn't want to lose him, and that's when I made the only mistake of the race ».
A round of applause for @marcmarquez93 and rightly so! 👏
It may have ended in disaster but that was some ride! 💪#FrenchGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/2koXI6Qsy4
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) May 14, 2023
Marc Marquez calm on the Kalex chassis: “ we are far away, this is not the solution »
« I think we had a real MotoGP race today? It was a great show for all the fans who came here this weekend ". Then the rest of the message is clearly for Honda... " I said it in the box: I'm good and prepared, I drove like I haven't done for a long time, but you can't do it like that every race. I don't know if it can go that far, today we escaped with the hard front tire, without having tried it we tested it in a race, and that allowed us to save the result while the others went away. Playing these cards are risks. Yes, but psychologically the most important thing for me is to show myself that I am, to continue with this confidence in myself and to wait for little things to come from Japan ».
And he finishes on the Kalex chassis… “ We are far away, this is not the solution. I don't know if the solution will come this season or not, but I am demanding of myself and I will prepare as much as possible for these three upcoming races. I hope that in Japan they will also prepare for the upcoming races as much as possible during these three weeks, and even starting this week. I will continue to fight until the end like I did today and will do in Mugello ».
MotoGP France J3: ranking
Credit classification motogp.com
