The conference held after qualifying for the Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix on the Red Bull Ring circuit welcomed Marc Márquez, fabio quartararo, Andrea Dovizioso, Tetsuta Nagashima and Romano Fenati.
As usual, we report here the raw words of Marc Márquez, without the slightest journalistic interpretation.
Marc, congratulations on your 59th pole position! Apparently this one was easier than last year…
Marc Márquez : "yes, already in FP4, I saw that it might be possible to do 1'22, but ultimately 1'23.0 is a good lap, and the most important thing is that we feel good on the bike and let the confidence be very great. We worked in the best possible way with the entire Repsol Honda team throughout the weekend. We took the right steps forward at the right time, but tomorrow is the most important day, and the guy to my left (Andrea Dovizioso) is not far away. He is consistent and has good pace, especially with the worn tire. And we cannot forget the Yamaha riders, Viñales and Quartararo. It looks like it’s going to be interesting, it looks like the temperatures are going to drop, and like every time during the race on Sunday, we’ll have to choose the rear tire carefully.”
Andrea Dovizioso appears closer to you in terms of race pace. Do you think it will be very close?
“It's important to be consistent during practice, because then you can better keep your pace during the race. In FP3 and FP4, I was very, very consistent, even since FP1, and that's the most important thing. Even though we made some small changes to the bike, we always had the same pace, and that's important for me, for my confidence. We will see ! It will depend a lot on the choice of rear tire, it will depend a lot on the temperature. It is correct that here you have to manage your rear tire, you have to manage the fuel consumption, you have to manage a lot of things. The full tank is also quite critical as it pushes the bike more. We will have to pay attention to all these things and we will see: I will try to fight for victory, and if that is not possible, I will try to take points for the championship. But anyway, at the moment, on paper, we have a good chance.”
Are you surprised to have been able to create a gap of 4/10 on the second?
" Yes. Of course, I was surprised when I saw the gap, because I expected everyone to be a little faster or a little closer. But today, as Andrea said, the track was very slippery during FP4 and qualifying. And this is particularly one of my strong points in qualifying when the track is slippery: I am able to brake the bike by sliding both wheels, front and rear. I can sometimes brake later than others. On this circuit, for example, it works well whereas I cannot use this advantage on other smoother tracks. But anyway, you can only do this for 2, 1 or 2 rounds. Like Andrea said, my pace is not 3/4 better than him. He is much closer, and we have to work hard, understand well and make the right choice for the race to finish ahead of them.”
Romano Fenati had problems last year and returned this year. What can you say about him?
“Of course I’m happy. Of course, he understood that what he did last year was not the best thing. I already said it in Brno about what happened with Rins: we are very young drivers and it is not easy to think on track, with all the tension and those things. Then we gain experience and we understand that we sometimes say or do things that are not correct, but due to lack of experience. He learned from that, he came back, and I'm happy because he has great talent. He showed it in Moto3, and I’m sure he will show it in Moto2 with more experience in the future.”
This circuit is very demanding on the brakes. Are you having issues with these and will you need to manage gas mileage?
“We have no problem with the brakes. Of course I brake very hard but, I don't know why, I have the lowest temperature of all the Honda riders. I can't explain why (laughs). But yes, regarding fuel consumption, this is one of the circuits where we are at the limit. But it's under control. I already used the race map during FP4 and the timer came. It is the most important ".
Ranking Qualification 2 Austrian Grand Prix MotoGP:
Ranking Qualification 1 Austrian Grand Prix MotoGP:
Credit rankings and photo: MotoGP.com
