Alex Marquez explains “scary” Marini crash in Le Mans MotoGP race

Marquez was trailing the VR46 duo of Marini and eventual winner Marco Bezzecchi on lap six of Sunday’s 27-lap grand prix at Le Mans.

As Bezzecchi and Marini battled for position, the latter touched the kerb on the inside of Turn 4 and lost the front-end of his Ducati.

Though he was able to keep his bike upright, he lost all momentum and Marquez behind was caught unsighted.

“Scary, but fortunately I’m ok,” Marquez said about the collision.

“I was riding quite smooth and quite good. We did some changes from [Saturday] and I was feeling really good in the warm-up on the pace.

“So, I was just trying to wait a little bit because it was the sixth lap of the race. At that point Luca was struggling a little bit and Marco was attacking him, so I said ‘Ok, if Marco attacks him I will also try to overtake and go’.

“But he did a small mistake on Turn 4 going over the kerb, he lost the front and Marco was able to not touch him.

“I was behind Marco and I didn’t see anything, and when Marco [moved] Luca was there in the middle and I was not able to avoid that crash.”

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing crash

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez landed in the middle of the track and was “trying to move, but I was sliding and it was difficult” to get out of the way. Fortunately, all oncoming riders avoided him.

Marini hurt his thumbs in the incident but was ok otherwise, and says the crash was nothing more than a racing incident.

“The incident was quite aggressive, quite hard, but everything went fine,” Marini noted.

“Just I have pain in my thumbs, because when I got hit I felt a pain on the handlebars and then also when I hit the ground with my hands, it was a big impact.

“I touched the kerb too much at Turn 4, I lost the front but I was able to stand the bike up.

“I made one of the best saves of my life, so I was happy in that moment because I was starting to accelerate. Then Marquez hit me in the back.

“I think it was difficult for him to avoid the impact because he was trying to not lose time. For me it was just a racing incident.”

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Marquez was also involved in a lap-one incident with Brad Binder which dropped to the KTM rider towards the back of the field. The Gresini rider has been given a three-place grid penalty for the next round he competes in, which is due to be next month’s Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.

“I was behind Johann [Zarco] and after Turn 5 I was not expecting him to brake so soon,” Marquez said of the incident which copped him a penalty.

“Then I was trying to avoid him on the inside. I was on the line more or less, they closed the gas so early and then I touched Brad a little bit because he was really on the inside there and he was trying to defend.

“I just touched him a little bit, but I saw that he lost some positions. I’m sorry for that because it was not my intention to hit Brad.”