Marquez: ‘We salvaged 11 important points’
A difficult weekend for the Repsol Honda team
REIGNING MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez had a difficult race in Qatar finishing off the podium in fifth after running wide on the opening corner.
Both Marquez and his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa made a poor start and were dropped down the order at the beginning of the race.
The younger Spaniard in the Repsol Honda team, Marquez, ran off track at the first corner and rejoined to take last place. The 22-year-old managed to carve his way through the field to finish fifth in front of Pedrosa, but was unable to catch the four front-runners, who had over a four second advantage.
Speaking after the race in Qatar, Marquez said: 'We should be happy because we have salvaged eleven important points, when we could easily have left here with none.
'It was a tough race, in which I made a mistake at the first corner and dropped back to last place. This meant that I had to make a comeback, pushing hard all through the race, but in the end I saw that I could not catch the group at the front.
'The positive that I'll take from today is that we rode at a similar pace to the lead group. In Austin we will continue to work hard, with an even stronger desire to do well.'
The next MotoGP round is in two weeks' time at Austin, USA, where both Marquez and Pedrosa have finished on the top two steps of the podium respectively.
