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Honda rider Marc Marquez was left “angry” with himself after a second French Grand Prix crash that he deemed “not necessary”.
Marquez, contesting his third race since his return from injury, looked on course for a dream outing as he revelled in the wet conditions at Le Mans, jumping ahead of Fabio Quartararo during the bike swaps and establishing an early two-second lead.
😱 @marcmarquez93 crashes from the lead!!!
A return to winning ways has slipped away! 💢#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/FaFKjSZvOO
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 16, 2021
That came to naught when he highsided off his bike at the final corner – but Marquez was able to continue after that and looked on for a decent result regardless, recovering to 11th but then crashing again, this time at La Chapelle.
And while he said the first fall was a natural part of the risk of flag-to-flag races, Marquez did admit he was irked by the second crash, which he feels came about through a loss of concentration.
“It’s true that obviously today we don’t use the opportunity that the weather brought to us,” he acknowledged. “And I’m disappointed about this.
“Already in the [morning] warm-up was quite difficult to get the temperature in the rear tyre, especially in the entry, but then on the race I knew that, if just I was patient, and I was, and I thought that I was inside the limits, but if I was patient that first three-four laps then will be a good race for me.
“But I crashed when I didn’t expect obviously, I wasn’t pushing a lot but anyway was like this, this can happen in a flag-to-flag [race], it’s quite a lot of risk, many crashes today.
“The good thing is that I took the bike again, I was the fastest guy in the race track – but I’m angry to me, to myself, because the second crash was not necessary.
“I was more thinking about another thing, about the position on the bike. I was just riding and I didn’t think about the track conditions. So, the second crash was much better if I avoid, but anyway the weekend was quite positive.”
Crash #2 for @marcmarquez93! 💢
The Spaniard was storming through the field until this point! 😲#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/CC4PNuovE5
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 16, 2021
Marquez said the race was “exactly what we expected” in terms of conditions, adding: “Riding slower, I know – checking now in the motorhome the pace of the riders – the race [win] was there.”
He also revealed that he was preparing to come into the pits for a late-race switch to slicks – which nobody ultimately attempted – when he fell.
“This was my fault, and I was not able to control myself,” he reiterated of the second crash. “I was not fully concentrated.
“I was riding fast, maybe too fast. I didn’t know the front riders were riding slower than me, after the first crash. I was just riding, thinking about the [recovering right] arm, other things.
“On that lap I just informed to my team that I was just informing my team that I was going in on the box, to change to slicks, because I believed the track was ready.”
