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A minor mistake in qualifying and a sprint race that was pure survival. That sums up Saturday for Marc Marquez, who secured a spot on the second row in qualifying behind a dominant Aprilia. In the sprint race, Marc then experienced a drastic drop in rear-tyre performance on the fourth lap—an issue that seemed to catch the Spaniard and the Ducatis in general by surprise. The risk of another crash thus served as a final warning for the Spaniard, who ultimately finished the survival sprint in ninth place. “What happened today is something that can happen to any rider when they’re not at the level needed to handle every situation the way I’d like to,” the Spaniard began. “I started the race knowing I’d have to suffer a bit, but I’m disappointed — I struggled more than I expected. In the sprint, we experienced some issues we didn’t expect, because in free practice we never saw the rear tyre degrade like that, and I wasn’t the only one affected—though I might have been the one who suffered the most. In my case, it started early, as early as the fourth lap, when I felt a significant drop in performance. At that point, I tried to hang on and finish the race because when I was among the top six or seven, I risked crashing—and at that stage, the difference between sixth place and a zero is 3–4 points—so I finished the race. Let’s see if I can improve tomorrow, manage the rear better, and if the team can find a solution.” What caused this rear problem? "It wasn’t the temperatures—normally, in colder conditions, it’s different— and it wasn’t wear, but rather ‘graining’ of the tyre; the tyre wasn’t operating at the right temperature. let’s see if we can find a solution tomorrow, but the thing is, the uncertainty will remain until the start because you won’t feel it during free practice or the warm-up.” Is there cause for concern? Could the medium make a difference? "I hope so, but on paper the soft and medium tyres are very similar— there isn’t a big difference on the rear. It’s not even a tyre issue, because the temperature between the track surface and the bike, and that of the tyre, is within the correct range; that’s what we need to figure out. There are tracks where the tyre changes a lot; here, it doesn’t change much. That worries me, because if we have the same level of degradation tomorrow, I’ll be out of the points.” How do you explain a problem like this without seeing it in the data? “That’s the question, but that’s the beauty of racing. You start the race and maybe some conditions change, but when the problem affects the other bikes as well—even if I suffered from it a bit more—we need to analyze why, taking into account each rider’s tendencies and riding style, and draw conclusions from there.” Alex seems to have been the only Ducati rider to suffer less. “We need to figure out what Alex is doing to see if that approach can help us heading into tomorrow.” There was also a problem with your airbag. “Yes, the bike took a hard jolt; at that point I was practically on the ground and the airbag deployed, but fortunately I stayed on the bike.” Could you have done more in qualifying? Was the front row possible? "Yes, but I saw a yellow flag; I saw the display lit up—it was red-yellow-red—but I saw it as yellow. I’d already received a warning at Le Mans for improving a split time under a yellow flag, and a second warning means a three-position penalty. I got confused thinking it was yellow, but by the time I realized it, it was too late—it would have been the third-fastest time. But the important thing is that, for the first time on a challenging track, I feel fast for at least one lap, even if I’m not quite at race pace yet.” What are your expectations for tomorrow? "You can see from the standings—it’ll be a race for the Aprilias, and the Ducatis will try to stay as close to them as possible." Photo @Pier Luca Brunetti