The Repsol Honda rider achieved the seventh victory of his career at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin this Sunday, beating championship leader Fabio Quartararo by 4.879 seconds after having led every lap from the start.
It was the second win of the year for Marc Márquez and the second to come on a circuit that runs counterclockwise, a circumstance that alleviates some of the physical limitations on his still-touched right shoulder.
Marquez says his race was the one he dreamed of, but admits he knew the Grand Prix of the Americas could be his last chance to win this season.
“It was a perfect race, the one I dreamed of the night before,” he declared. “It is true that my plan was to try to lead the race from the beginning because the first laps were my weak points, and then I tried to slow down the race from the first four or five laps and when I felt good, I just pushed.
“It was a strong progression, from one lap to the next I was half a second faster, and that was one of the main reasons for being able to open a gap. I’m happy, very happy, because it’s been a very tough season and sometimes I crash and I don’t I understand, sometimes I’m fast and I don’t understand it, sometimes I’m slow and I don’t understand it either”.
“But I was looking for this victory because I know that it may be the last circuit with good conditions to win. My intention was to be strong, not as strong as here but strong in the last three races and try to be consistent and we’ll see what happens.”
Marquez admitted he feared looking “stupid” in the closing laps when he slowed down as his Honda became harder to control over the bumps, revealing he nearly went down with three laps remaining.
“It was very difficult, especially because of the potholes,” he added when asked how difficult it is to stay focused with such a commanding lead. “The problem is when you slow down a little bit the bike shakes even more and on the last lap it looked stupid because it was slow but the bike was shaking a lot so I said, ‘what’s going on here?
“It was especially hard to stay focused, with three laps to go I almost crashed at Turn 6, hit the inside curb and almost lost the front end.
Marquez led Friday practice in Austin but admitted that day he didn’t feel like he was driving well. That feeling stayed with him until Saturday, but he admits that the fact that he didn’t tighten his body too much when he felt limited on the bike turned out to be the key to his victory.
“The key point of this weekend was that on Saturday I didn’t feel so good either,” he explained. “I mean, the speed was there, but the feeling with the track and with the bumps wasn’t, and I didn’t push.”
“Because if you don’t feel good and you push a lot, then you are using your muscles a lot and pushing your fitness. On Saturday I only pushed one lap and Sunday in the warm-up is where I felt better and pushed more.”
“So the key point was on Saturday, staying calm and saving energy, and on Sunday showing up and giving it my all.”
Click on the link or on the image to enjoy the photos of Márquez in Austin
