Marc Marquez record of being the only rider in the World Championship to score points at every race came to an end at the Australian Grand Prix, as the Repsol Honda Team rider crashed out at Phillip Island. The Spaniard had been first on the opening corners and established a solid lead, but a mistake at Turn 4 on Lap 10 brought his race to an early conclusion. Running wide under braking, Marquez tried to maintain his line, losing grip and hitting the ground.
Marc Marquez: “First of all I want to say sorry to my team because I made a mistake today. We were doing everything perfectly, and we were just missing capping it with a result on Sunday. If I had been fighting for the title it would’ve been an entirely different race, as I wouldn’t have risked so much. Today I started strong because I knew I had to make a difference at the beginning. I was maintaining the distance, but at one of the hard braking points I braked too late and instead of taking a wider line, which is what I had been doing throughout the year, I tried to keep going. In such cases the limit is a fine one. We remain happy of course because we had already won the title but of course we wanted to win more races. It was completely my mistake; during the whole season I’ve been very careful on the braking points and this time I risked more so this crash has nothing to do with the Michelin tyres. Now we have another race next week, and we’ll just think about that. Congratulations to Cal for his great victory”.
