Marc Marquez said he considered pulling out of the Austrian Grand Prix at one stage as brake issues significantly hampered his performance in Sunday’s MotoGP race.
The factory Ducati rider started from the front row of the grid but finished a distant fifth at the end of a topsy-turvy race at the Red Bull Ring.
Marquez’s troubles were evident from the start as he dropped from second to fifth, with his team-mate Francesco Bagnaia also putting him under pressure.
After repassing the Trackhouse Aprilia of Ai Ogura for fourth, he ran off the track on lap nine, before slipping further to seventh place.
Over the closing stages, he managed to clear both Brad Binder and Fermin Aldeguer to finish as the top Ducati in fifth, but ended up more than seven seconds behind race winner Pedro Acosta (KTM).
Speaking afterwards, the reigning world champion revealed that he was beset by brake problems for a major chunk of the race, which even made him consider pulling into the pits to retire.
“We were struggling more than the other weekends, but we were there. But the problem is that in the first part of the race I had many, many problems with the front brake,” said Marquez.
“For that reason, I went wide in Turn 1. The front lever was not constant and every brake point was in one way. When I had the mistake in Turn 1, I brake and it was empty; there was nothing there. For that reason I went super wide – not a little bit, super wide.
“Today we were very lucky, because at one point of the race, I saw that, ‘OK, I cannot continue’. But then, the brakes started to work from one lap to the other. Then I started to be faster again and gained some positions, but obviously it was too late.
“The good thing is that it’s something that you can see on data, so they can analyse and try to have some solution for the future.”
Marquez said the cause had yet to be identified, as he explained how the braking issues were affecting the bike’s handling.
“Here, we don’t have the shaking problem or something like this. [Brake supplier] Brembo worked very hard in that area,” the Spaniard added.
“Normally, if you have some shaking, it’s always from 7 to 8, and then in Turn 9 you have the issue. But the rest of the track is consistent.
“We had a big issue. For that reason, in the first lap, I was not hard on the brake points. I was just trying to understand where the front lever was at every brake point, and then I was losing a lot there.
“I feel very lucky, because today the maximum position was second or third, and in the end, we finished fifth.”
On Saturday, Marquez identified Michelin’s stiffer rear tyre carcassing cause as the chief reason behind Ducati’s lack of pace at the Red Bull Ring. The Desmosedici appears to struggle with the special, which is only used at Buriram, Goiania and Mandalika in addition to the Red Bull Ring.
Even on Sunday, Ducati appeared to be the third-best manufacturer at Spielberg, with Acosta winning for KTM and Aprilia locking out places second to fourth.
Marquez didn’t want to use the tyre construction as an excuse, even as he admitted Ducati has work to do to catch up in this area of the Indonesian Grand Prix next month.
“This is another thing, but in the end it’s the same for everybody,” he said. “It’s true that we need to work well there, because in Thailand we struggled a lot. Here again we struggled a lot, but at least here we were competitive.
“Let’s see if we can improve for Mandalika, especially because we have not this one, but a special casing.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
