ALEX MARQUEZ BLAMES FOOT AND GEAR-SHIFT ERRORS FOR MOTEGI CRASHES

Alex Marquez’s Japanese Grand Prix ended in a crash at Motegi, bringing a difficult weekend to a close. The Gresini Ducati rider had been fastest in Friday practice and ran as high as fourth early in Sunday’s race, but dropped back after serving a double long-lap penalty for causing a first-lap pile-up in the Sprint. He eventually crashed from eighth in the closing stages.

Marquez said the race fall repeated the error that had put him down in warm-up. In both incidents, he misplaced his foot while leaned over and selected the wrong gear: instead of shifting down, he shifted up. “Then you crash because [you are in the wrong gear and] the bike is like making a push,” he explained.

He was frustrated that the same mistake happened twice in one day. “Always when you make a mistake, doesn’t matter the position, it’s disappointing,” he said. “At least we have the positive that the speed was there, but these are mistakes that I can’t make, and especially twice in one day.”

The warm-up had given riders their first opportunity to test Michelin’s reinforced hard rear tyre. After blistering affected the soft and medium options in the Sprint, the stiffer-casing tyre became Michelin’s recommended choice. Although the construction had caused Ducati difficulties in Austria, it worked well on Motegi’s new asphalt. Every rider chose it for the race, despite the standard-casing medium remaining available.

Marquez said the tyre’s performance caught the paddock off guard. “This morning in the box, they were joking a little bit, ‘If the hard now is working, we don’t understand nothing about the bikes!’” he recalled. He noted that Michelin’s approach differed from usual: the hard casing was paired with a soft compound, rather than the hardest compound available that weekend. “We’ll have that in mind for the next races if we have this choice again,” he said.

The crash left Marquez without points for the weekend and cost him eighth place in the championship to Pecco Bagnaia ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix.