Marquez Secures Sixth Place at Mugello

Defending MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team RC213V) matched his qualifying position with a sixth-place finish in today’s Italian Grand Prix at the scenic Mugello circuit in Tuscany.

The ten championship points Marquez took home were a valuable points haul at the end of a challenging weekend for the former 125cc and Moto2 World Champion and his team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC213V). Both men struggled with a lack of grip from their tires that left them unable to get the maximum from themselves and their machines. Pedrosa’s race ended halfway around the final lap when he slid off.

Marquez had started from the second row of the grid, and on the second lap the three-times MotoGP king forced his way into third place. But Michelin’s latest front tire wasn’t giving him the kind of grip he needed, so he was unable to hold the position and he then lost touch with the lead group. However, the 24-year-old Spaniard managed to maintain a good pace to finish 5.8 seconds behind race-winner Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), making his average lap time just 0.25 seconds slower than that of the Italian.

Former 125cc and twice 250cc World Champion Pedrosa arrived in Italy after three podium finishes in the last three races, including victory at home in Spain, which put him second overall in the title chase. The 31-year-old qualified fifth, but his grip problems were at their worst in the race. He dropped to 12th in the closing stages and on the last lap was trying to take 11th place from Honda’s top independent team rider Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda RC213V) when he fell. Unfortunately, he also took down Crutchlow. Neither rider was hurt.

This left independent team rider Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) to take 11th for a second race in succession, continuing the former Moto2 World Champion’s steady improvement in his second year in the class. Rabat had qualified a career-best tenth.

His team-mate Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V), who is still recovering from a heavy crash at Le Mans, finished 15th. The Australian has scored points in every race this year but one, when he was knocked off by another rider.

The paddock now travels to Barcelona for next weekend’s Catalan Grand Prix, the home race for the locally based Repsol Honda Team.

Marc Marquez

“I started the race strong because I knew the first laps were important, so I tried to fight. At first I was able to do it, but after a while I started struggling with the front tire in the corners, and I was also getting caught on the straight by the others. We chose the medium front spec because we knew that with the hard option, which I felt better with, we wouldn’t have finished the race. In fact, with the medium front option being asymmetric, in this case the medium spec was harder on the right side than the hard spec, and the Mugello track stresses the right side more. But at a certain point, I started feeling I was struggling too much in the corners, so I decided to stay there and not risk crashing. The situation allowed us to finish sixth. This is an up-and-down championship, so we must keep working hard and look to improve.”

Tito Rabat

“I am very happy with this result because this is the closest I have finished to the front guys in MotoGP. After the start I was able to stay with Cal Crutchlow for many laps, and I was pushing 100 percent. Then towards the end Dani was just ahead but I was losing some rear grip and was getting very tired, so I decided to make sure I finished the race.”

Jack Miller

“Scoring a point today is bonus considering from the start of the weekend I just didn’t feel on the pace, with a lack of front grip and confidence. But it’s a solid result with no crashes and I did the best I could in the race. Now I’m looking forward to doing the Barcelona race next weekend and being fit for the second of the back-to-back races.”

Dani Pedrosa

“We’ve been struggling with lack of grip since the beginning of the weekend, and today in the race it was even worse. I felt no grip since the start, either at the front or the rear, and I got passed by many riders with no possibility to fight back. The bike was shaking a lot even on the straight, and basically I wasn’t able to manage it. It was a long race. Ultimately I crashed on the last lap trying to overtake Cal, and I took him out. I’m sorry for that because it’s not good when you make a mistake and someone else pays for it. Luckily, we’re both okay after the crash, so we’ll take this and look forward to the next race. Hopefully we’ll have a better feeling in Catalunya.”

Cal Crutchlow

“I qualified 13th, and starting so far back is always going to hinder you. We knew this would be a difficult track for us, but our saving grace is our bike likes to slide a lot, so we can go quite well at the end of the race. I made a mistake mid-race and lost a couple of seconds, but I was feeling quite good, not pushing over the limit and making sure I would finish. At the end I was catching the guys in front. Dani came from quite a long way back … I didn’t even hear him coming, then all of a sudden I was surfing on top of two bikes. But these things happen, and Dani was obviously frustrated by the position he was in.”