Jubilant Alex Marquez said he knew the MotoGP Sprint race was his chance to become a premier class winner for the first time yesterday at the British Grand Prix.
On a damp but drying track at Silverstone, Marquez seized his opportunity on the Gresini Ducati.
The Spanish rider, who started from third place on the front row after a wet qualifying, worked his way through to the lead and built up a cushion of around one second over Italy’s Marco Bezzecchi.
Marquez managed the race from the front but in a nervy end to the 10-lap race, Bezzecchi closed rapidly on the VR46 Ducati on the last lap, slashing the deficit to four tenths of a second.
However, Marquez – often in his older brother Marc’s shadow – held firm to close out his first MotoGP victory by three tenths of a second.
The 27-year-old will now be aiming to repeat the feat in Sunday’s main race, when he will again line up on the front row.
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“I’m really happy and it’s a really good thing to start the second part of the season with winning the Sprint race, so I’m really happy for that,” Marquez said.
“Thanks to the team because they gave me a lot this weekend and I knew today was the day to win a Sprint, I was convinced.
“It was a little bit slippy in the first corners and I said I need to overtake, I need to push because I was feeling really good.
“I was pushing quite well, I was feeling very good with the bike. From Lap 3, I saw clearly that today is the day, I need to take the risk,” he added.
“I had a lot of traction, and the team did an unbelievable job for that.
“It’s the best way to start this second part of the season and tomorrow we have the most important race.”
Marquez has never lacked pace in wet or mixed conditions, but he feels he can also stake his claim for a win in Sunday’s expected dry race.
“With the Honda I also was fast with the wet conditions or when the conditions are half-half. On dry this year also we are fast, we are there, and we have to start tomorrow also from the first row, so we need to attack, to be really concentrated,” he said.
“Tomorrow will be quite tight, and I think many people have the speed, many people have rhythm, so it will be open until the end.
“It will be really important to manage the rear tyre because with the traction, it was so high revving yesterday [in practice].
“We have to understand whether to go with the soft or medium rear tyre, so that is the change, and tomorrow will be completely different so we have to continue our focus and push.”
The 2023 Monster Energy British Grand Prix starts at 13:00 local time/22:00 AEST Sunday August 6.
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