Marquez: "After five crashes it wasn’t easy!"

Five crashes in the lead up to his second home race of the year wasn't the best weekend for reigning Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), but the number 93 held it together in a tough race to cross the line in second despite the difficulties. Saying his team was key to the podium, the rider from Cervera had intended to attack for the win, but the precursors to the race left him taking the second place and twenty points.

The Repsol Honda rider also had a crash of a different kind in morning Warm Up, tripping over in pitlane:

Marc Marquez, P2: “It was a really difficult weekend for us, especially before the race with the mentality. After five crashes it wasn’t easy. It was hard to sleep, but I said ‘ok today will be a good day’...then I just walked out the box and 'crashed' there. That moment in pitlane…even when I saw it I thought ‘wow, I’m stupid’…I just didn’t see the starter with the helmet and everything! I was focused on the race track…then I crashed again on track! I thought ‘what’s going on, I want to go home!’ But my team convinced me I was the same Marc, like in Austin last year. I never gave up and pushed, then there was that big contact with Petrucci and again I thought ‘what’s going on!’ I thought today the man to beat would be my teammate but when I saw Dovi behind knew I knew it was going to be him. What we were losing on the straight we couldn’t gain in the corners, so I decided to settle for second and bring it home. Today the target was the victory, and I arrived here on Wednesday and Thursday saying 'this weekend I want to take a risk…' but in the race, I said 'Ok'. I think if I hadn’t crashed so much yesterday, I would have today."