After his second crash in practice on Friday in Jerez, Alex Marquez is glad to have escaped uninjured – brother Marc Marquez believes he took too many risks
Alex Marquez had a turbulent day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez. He crashed his Gresini Ducati in turn 1 during the morning practice session. Nevertheless, he went on to set the fastest time with 1:36.831 minutes. In the afternoon, the local hero had a more serious accident.
He crashed in the fast Sito Pons corner (turn 5) on his first run. His motorcycle hit the track barrier. The practice session had to be interrupted to repair a damaged air fence.
Alex Marquez was suffering from pain in his right wrist and received physiotherapy treatment in the team truck. He returned to the track in the final stages and not only set the fastest time of the day with 1:35.991 minutes, but also a new lap record.
“The best thing you can do to apologize to the team for mistakes is to be fast. That’s exactly what I tried to do,” he said of his outstanding lap time, adding: ‘Physically, I’m feeling pretty good.’
But Alex Marquez is still annoyed about the two mistakes: ‘Today, I was riding in a kind of ’too confident’ mode. I didn’t feel the limit because I simply had too much confidence in the bike. The bike was too stable, too good.“
”So I just pushed without realizing that I was already at the limit. The mistake in the morning in Turn 1 with the soft tire was part of it – but also this afternoon in Turn 5. We need to control this risk a little better.”
“Nothing happened today, but something like that can have an impact on the championship.” Because an injury can have serious consequences. Especially when you’re riding in such good form as the younger Marquez.
Marc Marquez certain: ‘Alex is taking too many risks’
Marc Marquez believes his brother took too many risks: “After that heavy crash, which meant he missed almost the entire practice session, to be so extremely fast and competitive shows that Alex is in very good shape physically and mentally and has a lot of confidence.”
“But he’s also taking risks – I’ve looked at the data and he is indeed taking risks. But everyone is currently riding at the limit.” After Friday, Marc Marquez believes that Alex will be the toughest competitor for the home victory.
However, Alex Marquez has a disadvantage because he only completed 32 laps on Friday. By comparison, Marc Marquez completed 44 laps and Francesco Bagnaia 41. The advantage is that Gresini can draw on the data from all Ducati riders.
“We’re relatively confident with the tires,” says Alex Marquez about the lost practice time, ”but you still have to try them out and get a feel for them. Especially in the afternoon, the plan was to do a lot of laps with the medium rear tire – specifically for the main race.”
“But we didn’t do any tests with the setup or anything like that. We’ll try that tomorrow. I’m really fast, but there are still a few things we need to improve, especially when turning into the first corners.”
Is Jerez the last big chance for Alex Marquez?
He is therefore preparing for “double work” on Saturday. Is Alex Marquez putting himself under pressure in Jerez because it could be his last chance to beat the Ducati factory team on his own?
During Monday’s test, the factory team will try out new developments, while the Gresini team will continue the rest of the season with the same technical specifications as last year’s bike. The gap could therefore widen.
“You never know,” says Alex Marquez. “We saw it in the winter tests: nothing worked for them, and then they found their way back. You can have lots of ideas and a few new parts, but sometimes they just don’t work.”
“It’s not easy to improve this bike any further. It’s already very good in many areas. Maybe you can change the character of the bike slightly, but in terms of riding style, it’s almost perfect.“
”We’ll have this bike until the end of the season – we know that. That’s why we’re not focusing on what the others are trying, because we won’t get it anyway. But with our package, we know that we can be really competitive.”