MARC MARQUEZ SAYS DUCATI CRASHES IN QUALIFYING SWAYED HIS MEDIUM TYRE CALL AT MISANO

Marc Marquez said his San Marino Sprint win came from a last-minute switch to Michelin’s medium rear tyre, a call made after seeing how the soft option was shaping up. While 15 of the 21 riders chose the soft at Misano due to low degradation, Marquez was among the minority on medium—an offset strategy that ultimately proved decisive.

After the Sprint, Marquez explained that his choice was influenced by what he had seen in qualifying: crashes involving Ducati riders, which he linked to the way the extra grip from the soft rear was overloading the front tyre. That context helped make the medium feel like the safer route to keep the bike working properly over the half-distance.

The tyre decision also highlighted a wider manufacturer divide at Misano. Luca Marini pointed to how different bikes “need” different rear tyres depending on their balance and grip characteristics. He noted that, as with most riders, he went with the soft rear for the Sprint’s 13 laps, while several others—particularly at the front of the field—opted for the medium.

Marini said the Honda RC213V’s different grip profile changes the equation. He argued that Honda’s lack of rear grip makes the soft-compound rear tyre a necessity, even if it can cost stability on corner exit and in the fast sections. “This surprised me,” said the Repsol Honda rider after the Sprint. “For us, Honda, the soft [compound rear tyre] was the only choice because we want as much grip as possible. So, it was never an option for me to take into consideration the medium.”

He added a blunt comparison of the potential trade-offs between manufacturers: “But at the end, if they [other manufacturers] have more grip than us and they use the medium, it's better for them.” Marini then described where that medium advantage can show up, saying it can bring “a little bit of stability in exit of the corners” and, particularly in sector three, “a little bit more performance from the whole bike.”

Marini also stressed that the Sprint tyre logic would not carry over in the same way to Sunday’s full race. “Like every year here, we go soft in the Sprint and medium in the race,” he said. He explained that once the soft rear becomes used, riders start to feel “a lot of movement in exit of the corners,” which in turn reduces acceleration. For that reason, he said it is better to commit to the medium because the rider can push “till the end of the race at 100 per cent.”

Marquez, meanwhile, framed his own medium switch as a confidence boost for the fight at the front. He said the medium gave him the “extra boost” to battle Bezzecchi, with both tyres still capable of delivering podium-level performance.