Alex Marquez revealed that he nearly threw away a first MotoGP sprint race win by accidently changing down a gear too many on the final lap at Silverstone.
The Gresini Ducati pilot showed impressive consistency throughout the ten-lap encounter after taking the lead on the second tour, the Spaniard preserving a lead of around a second over pole-man Marco Bezzecchi right up until the closing stages of the contest.
The VR46 rider though seemingly had managed to save some more tyre than Marquez as he closed in by around half-a-second on the final lap to nearly get within striking distance for an attack at the death, though Marquez ultimately held it together across the final couple of sectors to take the chequered flag just 0.366s clear of the Italian.
Marquez conceded post race though that a “big mistake” when changing down his Desmosedici’s gearbox at Copse on the very final circulation, where he changed down to second rather than the third he should have, lost him around 0.5s and allowed Bezzecchi a look-in for a late move.
“I’m really happy, this morning was really difficult with the qualy but we saved it in a good way to be on the front row,” explained Marquez.
“We expected the track to be wetter in the afternoon with more rain, but it was quite dry so everyone was having some doubts (over tyre choice) before the race but I felt really good from the sighting lap on the way to the grid.
“During the early part of the race I felt like I might be slipping a bit too much, but after a couple laps I felt I had a lot of traction and really good feeling with the bike and I said ‘I need to go and make the gap now’ which I did and everything worked perfectly.
“I haven’t got much to lose in terms of points, so I was able to take more risk.
“I did a big mistake in Turn 9 by missing the downshift, instead of taking the corner in third I did it in second and I lost around 0.5s.
“So I knew after that he (Bezzecchi) was close, but I was quite fast in sector three and four so I knew it would be tough for him to overtake me.
“I just kept my pace and made sure to keep my lines tighter than normal, so I’m really happy for the team because we had a tough start but we worked together to improve.”
Marquez – who is yet to score a full-length grand prix success in MotoGP – was guarded on whether he could achieve the Silverstone sweep on Sunday, earmarking his sprint rival Bezzecchi as well as Aprilia duo Maverick Vinales – who finished third in the sprint – and Aleix Espargaro as riders he’d be keeping his eye on during the British GP.
“For sure tomorrow will change a lot, it will be dry it seems and we saw yesterday especially Marco (Bezzecchi) really fast and with a good pace,” added Marquez.
“It will be a long race with 20 laps, Aprilia are also really fast and consistent so rear tyre choice will be important and managing that will be the key to the race because if you start to struggle for traction here you will lose a lot of time.”
Keyword: Marquez: Final lap ‘big mistake’ nearly gifted Bezzecchi Silverstone sprint win