Bikesportnz

From ninth on the starting grid to taking the GP win, it couldn’t have gone much better for Spain’s multi-time former champion Marc Marquez.

But the Ducati rider said his “totally unexpected” victory at the San Marino MotoGP, round 13 of 20 in the series, at the weekend “was impossible” without the drops of rain that impacted the early part of the race.

The Gresini rider felt he had “ruined” his weekend when he crashed in Q2 and left himself ninth on the grid.

Marquez struggled in the sprint to make progress and could only come up with fifth.

Light rain in the early stages of the grand prix brought Marquez into contention for victory on Sunday, however, with the Spaniard taking the lead from Italy’s defending world champion Francesco Bagnaia on lap eight of 27.

Knowing he had strong pace for the second half of the race, Marquez defended Bagnaia well before streaking 3.1s clear at the chequered flag to score a second win in a week in 2024.

But Marquez admitted after the race that, without the questionable conditions, he would not have been able to fight at the front.

“This one was totally unexpected, especially because starting in ninth place, without those drops [of rain] it was impossible to fight with the top guys,” said Marquez, who is now 53 points off the championship lead.

“We knew that our second part of the race was super strong and for me, the most important thing … ok, one point is to lead the race, but the other point is to open a gap to the world champion and to Bagnaia who has always been very fast there.

“I was able to ride in a very good way, very fast and defend in the first part of that second part of that race. And then attack in the last laps.”

When the rain was at its worst on lap seven, series leader Jorge Martin elected to pit for his wet bike while running in second.

Marquez says he had no intention of pitting at that point despite having also seen Franco Morbidelli crash out of third in the wet, but admits had conditions worsened on the following lap he would have boxed.

“No,” he replied when he thought about pitting when Martin did.

“Of course, at one point if there was one more lap raining like this then maybe it’s time to go in.

“But especially when I saw that nobody went in and only one rider [did] you need to stay out and this is what I did.

“I controlled in a good way, but then on the next lap is when I attacked. I gave everything. I saw some riders crashed because it was super wet in Turns 1/2, but we managed it well.”

Marquez added: “During the whole weekend we had the speed. But we made a mistake in qualifying.

“It is there that we need to improve, in two weeks.

“Apart from that, when I saw the drops on my visor and the asphalt, I decided to take a risk …”

Photo courtesy Ducati

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MotoGP World Championship standings after round 13: