Marquez explains anger at Aragon MotoGP FP2 crash

The six-time MotoGP world champion was following his LCR Honda-mounted brother Alex Marquez in the opening stages of FP2 when he was forced to run wide to avoid hitting him at the Turn 16 left-hander.

The elder Marquez brother then tucked the front when he hit the dirty outside line of the circuit and wrecked one of his Hondas.

He was visibly fuming in the gravel afterwards as he walked to recover his bike, with the Spaniard saying this stemmed from the fact he knew it changed his FP2 plans.

“The day I’m happy, it’s true that the plan was changed a little bit because of the crash,” Marquez said.

“The plan was to use the soft tyre in the first, second runs just to understand for the race distance.

“It [the crash] changed a little bit the plan, but on the other hand we tried the hard rear tyre, so it changed the plan for this afternoon but didn’t change the plan for the race weekend because we already understood a few things.

“It’s true that after the crash I was angry because I felt under control.

“I went wide, and I said ‘OK, give up’ because it’s free practice.

“But when I go onto the dirty place, I lost the front and I was just angry for that, because then I know with that crash, I didn’t follow the correct plan and because it was a situation that I felt under control but just I lost the front where I didn’t expect.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez ended Friday at Aragon eighth overall, with Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro just under a tenth adrift in 11th.

Espargaro trialled a 2022 prototype chassis on Friday and was pleased with his initial feelings on it, with the Spaniard explaining the new frame is designed to improve the grip issues Honda has suffered all year.

“Well obviously we are trying to improve the problems we have this year, which is grip on the edge [of the tyre], floating on the entry, the spinning with the bike straight,” he said.

“So it’s trying to get more grip and trying to apply more force on the rear tyre because it’s obvious we are not as good as in the past, or Honda is not as good as in the past and they are struggling a little to generate this grip.

“So, for sure it’s in this line, the idea is to be with more grip.”