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Marc Marquez was very disappointed at missing out on what would have been his first podium at the Indian GP. In what turned out to be a completely surprising turn of events, the Spanish superstar had a competitive bike under him for a change.
At the Buddh International Circuit, the Repsol Honda was surprisingly impressive and capable of being a contender in the lead group. As a testimony to this, Marc had even finished on the podium in the sprint on Saturday. On Sunday however, Marc was running in P4 chasing the lead pack.
In what was a very unfortunate chain of events, Marc Marquez ended up falling off the bike. While he mounted on the back and rejoined the race, the podium contention ended there and then.
From that point onwards while Marc did recover to score points, he wasn't very happy about the race as a podium went begging. He told MotoGP:
“I'm a bit frustrated because today the podium was a real chance. It was a real chance, but with a lot of risk and it's what I did. When you try but there are three riders [ahead] that are faster than you. Bezzecchi, Martin and Pecco. I was taking too much risk on those first laps."
He added:
"I went a bit wide on turn 1 and lost the front, was very close to saving it, but it was impossible. Then the most important thing is that I finished the race and did all the laps. The pace was to be on the podium so this makes me happy.”
Marc Marquez on why the Honda was competitive in India
When questioned why he felt that the Honda was competitive in India, Marc Marquez felt that this was down to the fact that the track layout was very similar to the track in Austin.
Notably, earlier in the season Alex Rins won the race in Austin riding an LCR Honda and that has been the most competitive weekend for the team. He said:
“This racetrack is very similar to Austin, a lot of stop and go, first gear corners. We saw in Austin what Rins did. It's not exactly the same here, but it's very similar and in those kinds of [slow] corners we are struggling less. So let's see if in Japan we can continue in the same way.”
There are still clouds hanging around the future of the Honda-Marquez partnership with Gresini Ducati interested in signing the Spaniard. It will be interesting to see if this result did something to dissuade that decision.
