Marc Márquez: "The fans have lifted me off the ground" (video)

Jerez.- He did not have the rhythm nor was he in the pools to fight for the positions of honor at the Spanish Grand Prix, but starting fourth on the grid, Marc Márquez completed his best race of the season and, for a few moments, was in a position of podium (3rd) already in the final part of the race, when he almost went to the ground achieving one of his impossible saves.

In the end, the Honda rider had to settle for fourth place, improving on Qatar’s fifth place in race one, his best result so far.

“I’m happy, it was the most we had today, I needed to make a good start and it wasn’t, we’ve run into Aleix Espargaró and almost Jack Miller, they made me a sandwich. The race was about survival, saving strength and wait for the last laps”, explained a Marc Márquez who showed the first smile of the post-race season.

“In the end I made the attack (on Miller) to stop Aleix, not to pass Jack, because I knew that Espargaró had something more, and I made a good save, we have left something there, we have shown that we always give our best, Whether fighting for fourth or sixth position, and the Jerez fans have lifted me off the ground”, assured the Honda rider.

As to whether the way in which Márquez has committed this Sunday in the Jerez race meant that he had found something to make the bike more his own, the champion did not give good news.

“I would say yes, but no, it is the same bike we started with in Qatar and we must continue to understand, I also have to say that the save was on a left-hander, when I do it on the right I will be able to say that I’m a little better, it’s still hard for me on the right”, confessed Marc, who broke his right arm two years ago on this same track.

“We have had a good race, we have fought until the end and that is what I am left with today,” he stressed.

For Marc this fourth place in Jerez is not a triumph, but he did manage to limit the damage.

“We have saved the weekend, but the way we have saved it, you do it a few times during the season, we need more speed because, I am honest, and we have saved it based on strategy, of looking for life like yesterday in Q2 , being aggressive at the beginning at the start, and with a very tactical race”, he said in reference to covering gaps everywhere.

“I thought I was going to be fifth, behind those on the podium and some others, but there was a moment when I thought that today we could win the lottery, but Aleix had a little more speed. Despite everything, I am happy with how It has gone within what there is, but we want to continue evolving”, settled the one from Cervera .

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team