was gradually coming under pressure from
Marquez as his brother Marc crashed out
at the same corner of his infamous tangle
with Valentino Rossi back in 2015.
For Alex Marquez, the moment of truth
came on lap six of 10 at turn nine as he put
the blue Ducati under Bagnaia's red Ducati
with the purple and white Ducati of Mar
-
tin and the other red Ducati of Bastianini
looking on. The orange KTM's of Miller and
Binder at a safe distance just wished they
were as fast as the four Dukes in front of
them. At least they had the black Ducatis of
Bezzecchi and Marini behind them.
Marquez was through and already
putting the screws to the chasing pack
as Martin put Bagnaia behind him at the
penultimate corner. Bastianini was look
-
ing racy by the last lap and probably could
have passed the number one of Bagnaia at
any point, but he played the good soldier by
staying behind his team and title leader.
VOLUME ISSUE NOVEMBER , P73
INJURY HELPED
ALEX MARQUEZ
In the wake of his best MotoGP
weekend to date, Alex Marquez
stated his recent injury—three
cracked ribs due to a crash in
India, then a further one in an
incident when recovering at
home—have forced him to ride
smoother, thus learning to man-
age the rear tire better. "At the
beginning of the year, honestly,
I was the worst [at Ducati for tire
management], and now I am the
best in that aspect, the one who
uses it the least," he said. "Why?
We have changed the setup a lot
starting at the Misano test. Apart
from that, breaking four ribs has
helped me with that. Both Aus-
tralia and Thailand, I had to go
smoothly without forcing the bike
too much. And that helped me
understand many things about
this bike."
TIRE PRESSURE
CONCERNS
As fears over receiving a penalty
for incorrect front tire pressures
increased in the wake of three rid-
ers warned and one punished in
Thailand, a host of names voiced
frustration at the current system,
which penalizes riders if they're
under the incorrect number (1.88
bar) for more than 50 percent of
the race. "We cannot ride at our
100 percent because of this rule,"
said Jorge Martin after the Sprint.
"This rule they need to understand
on our side and try to make (the
minimum pressure) lower because
we're not seeing real races. We're
seeing technical races. If my tech-
nician does a wrong tire pressure,
then I cannot push or show my
potential."
Briefly...
Alex Marquez was
sublime in the Sprint
Race for his second
win of the year.
