Since Marc Márquez was seriously injured at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix, a physical decline from which he continues to recover, the Spanish rider has had no problem admitting, on many occasions, that he needs a wheel to pull him, especially when trying to make a fast lap.
Although the action of tailgating (tailgating, in motorcyclist slang) has always existed in this sport, in the past it was more associated with riders who did not have the capacity and tried to gain a few tenths on the clock by taking advantage of the slipstream of a teammate or rival. However, the increasing equality in MotoGP has meant that many riders, even leading ones, have at some point used this remedy, which is sometimes effective.
Márquez has no qualms about admitting it, and even more so now that neither he nor the bike are up for much joy.
“In the straight we lose two or three tenths with respect to the Ducati, if we can have the slipstream it is a free gain”, he said today after trying to follow Pecco Bagnaia in the first start of Q1 and Jack Miller in the second. He also followed the Italian into Q2, with both Pecco and Jack crashing out in front of Marc, who had to complete the lap alone, making it through to final qualifying and qualifying on the front row of the grid.
“These things can happen, but they start to happen too much,” said Bagnaia at the end of the day, after qualifying only 9th on the grid due to the crash.
“There have been times when seven bikes followed me. The regulations don’t say anything about it, but it’s already a bit too much,” the Turin man insisted somewhat annoyed.
Jack Miller also spoke about the subject, who in the second start of Q1 met six or seven drivers who were following him, made it appear that he was going to attack but ended up moving away and when he decided to go for the lap, he fell to the ground and did not could go to Q2.
“When I came out of the garage I had several drivers behind me, but I wasn’t going to let that affect me. It means you do things right,” he said.
“What I don’t like is that they’ve been complaining about it all year, and then they’re left waiting on the back straight to get a wheel. People are always going to follow wheels,” he added.
They blame Márquez to follow Pecco
The Italian media picked up the gauntlet of the Ducati leader’s complaint and asked Márquez directly at the press conference if it would not be better to follow another Ducati rider, if he was thinking of doing that, instead of Pecco, who is playing the championship.
The question didn’t sit well with Marc, who maintained his composure but was terse in his response.
“From my point of view, when in the past I was fighting for the championships, the other drivers didn’t care too much either,” #93 released.
“A different thing, as happened in FP3 with Franco Morbidelli, is that you bother, in that case you do have to pay attention. But when you are behind and you are not super close and glued, the truth is that you are not bothering the pilot from ahead.”
Marc is struggling to recover from a very serious injury and does not have a bike as competitive as would be expected from Honda, which is why he believes that Bagnaia should not worry about minor issues and should focus on his own.
“If you’re fighting for a championship and you have a clear objective, you stay smart and you manage the situation, you push hard on a clear lap ahead of you, it doesn’t matter if they follow you,” he said.
And he did not want to finish the answer, without making it clear that he had understood the message of it.
“He was not the only one who followed him. Bagnaia, when he comes out, there are many riders who follow him, but it is true that the colors of Repsol Honda shine a little more, they attract more attention,” he concluded.
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Photo by: Srinivasa Krishnan
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