As soon as the rain began to fall more heavily at Motegi, Marc Marquez was one of the first to ‘ask’ for a stop to the race and admitted afterwards that racing in such conditions was really ‘impractical’, even though the rain itself allowed the spaniard to gain positions in the race, which he finished third.
‘When I saw that a few drops were falling, I said: «The opportunities are opening up». I saw that there was rain, that on the first lap we changed to rain tyres, so I saw that it was going to be a long race, and that’s why I was very cautious at the start, because the asphalt was dry and if you push too hard the tyres get destroyed, so I was quite calm,’ said the rider quoted by DAZN at the end of the race.
However, it wasn’t until the rain got heavier that I started to feel better, although this continuous worsening made it impossible to ride safely, he added:
– When the rain started in earnest, that’s when I started to feel good, to push harder, because the tyres held up well. I was recovering and reducing, I was very comfortable, but before the red flag and despite being one of the fastest on the track, I put my hand up because it was impractical, there was a lot of water on the track and I was aquaplaning. In this case, it was a good decision.
Marquez concluded: ‘I felt good, but I was looking for it. At the start I didn’t feel good, I was losing positions. But the feeling wasn’t very good. But when there was more water on the track I started to go like last year in qualifying, more relaxed, but I felt the bike and that allowed me to move up’.