PIC: Marquez magic save, ‘different strategies for opponents’

The sight of Marc Marquez accumulating MotoGP race wins by the weekend is no new phenomenon. But leading every from the first corner then every lap in the manner and style of team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is.

After posting the second fastest time in FP2 during an eventful Friday at Le Mans, Marquez explained he has undertaken this recent strategy of dominating from the front to leave his opponents in a state of unease.

Marquez has led every lap he has completed since the very start of the Argentine Grand Prix. His recent winning margins there and at Jerez have been a contrast to the fairing bashing battles on which he forged his reputation.

The reigning world champion explained the strategy is “positive because then your opponents … will not know what you will do.” It seems in his seventh year in the premier class, Marquez is attempting to vary his means of achieving success.

“It’s true that since Argentina I led many laps,” he said. “I was not used to race like this but sometimes you need to find different strategies for the opponents. If not everybody expects the same. When I have the bike and the feeling, and when I feel strong enough then why not?

“That means if I have the feeling, why not try to do it again here? But after warm-up you already understand if it’s possible or not. It’s positive because then your opponents, then they will not know what you will do. You can understand the kind of strategy of Maverick, of Dovi, of Rossi.

“But when somebody is doing something new and in some races starts pushing from the beginning then in another race starts saving the tyre you don’t know if he’s straining or pushing. And it’s just for a chance.

“But of course in every race it will not be possible to do this strategy.”

How did @marcmarquez93 manage to save that this morning in FP1? #FrenchGP pic.twitter.com/o7ozgfCNCI

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) May 17, 2019

Marquez’s opening day of free practice at Le Mans was characterised by a series of huge front and rear end slides. Aside from his spectacular save at turn eight (pictured) in FP1, he lost the rear several times in FP2 only for it to come back.

“Of course this morning was the good one, the good save. It was a big save, difficult,” he said. “I was on the curve and I pushed a lot with the knee and elbow to save the crash.

“Then in the afternoon basically it was coming from the rear. I was using the hard rear tyre. It was good but if you don’t get the correct temperature in these first two or three laps - when it’s very difficult to get the temperature in the tyre – and you don’t take the risk then it’s very difficult to arrive.

“I was trying to be aggressive and then this created some slides that I didn’t expect but I was trying to find the limit.

“Of course with the hard I was riding today but the track was not ready to use it. It was a little bit too cold. Anyway like this I was able to be fast. It’s true that it looks like with the soft the pace with the other riders was not bad, but when I put the soft in the last [minutes] the grip was a bit better.

“But it was important to understand because we don’t know on Sunday. Here if it’s cloudy and very cold… But if it’s sunny it’s pushing a lot. The important thing is we have this information and now we need to analyse. But at the moment I don’t know the real option for the race distance.”

Asked whether he was using any new parts here after testing Honda’s carbon chassis at the Jerez test, Marquez added, “Here? No. We start with the same base like in Jerez with some small modifications on the electronics side because we found a few things.

“Here for example we have first gear corners which is where we had the problems in Austin. I can say that we don’t have the problem like in Austin. It’s working in a good way so this is very important.”