The six-time MotoGP world champion was returning to action after his absence from Argentina, where he was singled out by many of his rivals as the favorite to take victory in Sunday’s race, even from ninth on the grid.
But a technical problem cut short Marc Márquez’s start and he was left behind in last place at the first corner.
“We had a technical issue, but Honda is looking into what’s going on,” Marquez said Sunday at COTA. “They already know more or less, but they are investigating.”
“Since I got to the start, I saw some alarms [on the bike] and I tried to start it, not to lose too much time, but the bike was crazy.
“Even I checked if I activated the pit-limiter. But no”
“This alarm stayed on the whole race, but luckily for us, in the first corner, when the holeshot was switched off, the bike worked more or less in a good way, although not perfect, because there was something there that was still there. wrong”.
The Spaniard added that his grand prix became “a sprint race” from then on, but his body prevented him from moving up to sixth.
“I gave it my all, and with five, six laps to go my body was like ‘Okay, that’s it’ and then I just tried to finish the race and even then I managed to finish at a good pace,” he said.
“The result is not what we expected, but if we check how we started, how the first corner went and how we finished, we can say that we left this weekend with a lot of confidence.”
“My goal was to build confidence, try not to have any accidents all weekend because the doctor told me that everything is fixed, but I am scared for my health, it was a recent impact three weeks ago.
“So, I just compete the best way I can, and this was the most important thing.”
Despite being denied the chance to fight for an eighth COTA victory, Marquez says he is “satisfied” with the race, but even more so with the fact that he was able to return to Texas after his vision problems in Indonesia. .
“Being here already this weekend was a step forward, and finishing the race in sixth position is too,” he said.
“If we check how we started the race, it is true that it seems that when you are at the worst moment, everything comes.”
“We never had a technical problem for almost all the years, but this is something that happens and I keep going.”
“I want to thank the team because they helped me a lot, they believed in me, they give me the confidence I need and this is the most important thing”.
