Why Marquez is willing to crash to improve his pace on Ducati MotoGP bike

Gresini rider Marc Marquez says he doesn’t mind crashing often in qualifying sessions as it is important for him to learn new things and improve his pace on Ducati’s MotoGP bike.

Marquez lost control of his GP23 prototype into Turn 3 with a little under 10 minutes to go into Q2, forcing him to dash to the pitlane and hop on his second bike – which he had already shunted in final practice earlier on Saturday.

Ultimately, the Spaniard was unable to improve on the benchmark he had set earlier in the session, leaving him seventh on the grid and behind the same-spec GP23 bike of VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi.

It was the second MotoGP round in succession where the six-time MotoGP champion had qualified out of position due to a mistake of his own making, with a similar incident in the first Misano round forcing him to start from the outside of the third row.

However, Marquez said he has to accept that he will be crashing often because, with championship protagonists Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin running in a class of their own, it is important for him to fully address his own weaknesses.

Asked to explain why he has been having frequent accidents in qualifying, the 31-year-old replied: “Because life is like this: try, [make an] error, try, [make an] error.

“The problem is that for learning [we need to make mistakes]. We are trying things in front of millions of people. But we need to accept that. But I will keep trying.

“I feel uncomfortable but I need to understand why I feel uncomfortable. If it’s because I don’t put enough load [on tyres or I put] too much load [on tyres].

“Unlucky for me that I crashed at Turn 3 in qualifying practice because in the race also I had a moment there.

“My life is like this and I will try. I have the confidence of victories and then I will try in Indonesia. Maybe I will finish again on the gravel, we will see. But I hope to improve for the future.”

Marquez explained that it’s the behaviour of the new tyres that makes him “uncomfortable” on the bike – and that explains why he is stronger in race trim than over a single lap.

It’s also the reason why he has been trying new things on the bikes, which ultimately led to the crash that left him over eight-tenths off pole position in qualifying.

He said: “I felt uncomfortable with the new tyre during all the season. When the tyre have [done] six-seven laps, ]in] some corners I’m faster than [I’m] with the new tyre. So it’s there where we need to understand and we need to try a few things.

“This GP we started to try small things on the electronics to understand my riding style. But it’s true that I feel uncomfortable with the amazing grip on the rear that I was not used [to] all my career.

“The way to do the time attack all my career, my concept was completely different with another bike [Honda]. So this is the hardest point to change.”

Marquez was able to make amends for his qualifying error by charging up to fourth by the second lap, but he lacked the pace to fight for a spot on the podium.

A late off-track moment left him under serious pressure from Tech3 GasGas’s Pedro Acosta but he was able to fend him off the KTM rookie to safeguard fourth place.

Marquez spent the final years of his Honda career with what had become the slowest bike on the grid, making it near-impossible for him to break inside the top five.

But the shift to last year’s Ducati has suddenly made him more competitive and he feels he is now more willing to try new things on the bike knowing that there are better results to be had.

“Of course the fact [that you can] win races, the fact [that you can] fight for the top [positions] gives you more confidence to try things.

“In the past, if you try [new things] but you don’t feel like [you will] never arrive [to the front], and then you start to try less. But now the good things arrive. I try when I need to try.

“And [with] qualifying practice, it’s a session that you need to try. Today I did the [initial] lap time and then I pushed a bit more. Yesterday I did the lap time and I know that I was already on the P3.

“But the only mistake I didn’t like today was one in FP2. But [with] the qualifying practice [error], it’s like this.”