'Unexpected brake problem' caused Marquez’s crash from COTA MotoGP lead

Qualifying third on the grid, Marquez was tipped by many coming into Sunday’s grand prix to add an eighth Americas GP win to his tally.

A factor in that victory battle, Marquez took the lead of a race for the first time as a Ducati rider on lap 11 when he carved past Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta at Turn 1.

But Marquez crashed out going into Turn 11 just moments later, which he said was down to an issue with his front brake that meant “nobody was there” when he grabbed the lever.

“Disappointing especially because I was feeling good, I was feeling hard, strong,” he said.

“But yeah, I’m more disappointed because today the speed was there, the feeling was there, but I had unexpected problems with the front brake during all the race that this give me a lot of difficulties to ride.

“Even like this I was even able to be in the top group because the pace was not fast, and then just I tried to lead as soon as possible to see if the temperature changed on the brake or something.

“And it was improving the brake feeling. But unfortunately, when I braked on that Turn 11, I braked and nobody was there [no pressure] and then in the second time it was better but still too much speed and I lost the front.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“But the most important thing is I feel competitive and this gives me a good mentality.”

He added: “On data we saw the problem was there and for example we saw on the brake point where I crashed, I braked two times.

“I pulled the brakes, nothing there, no pressure. And then I pulled a second time and it was a bit better but there was no pressure.

“So, now they need to understand. Not only there, also in Turn 12 I was braking two times, three times. So, we need to understand the thing to improve for the future.”

While believing he could have fought at least for the podium through to the chequered flag, Marquez feels this problem is a normal part of a new project and says the Gresini team is quick at generating answers to issues.

“You know that I’m a guy that if I crash I say ‘sorry, I crashed’,” he noted. “Today we had a lot of problems but the good thing is they are normal problems in a new project.

“When we have problems we need to create the answer, and now today we had the problem and we need to create the answer. I think the team is quite quick and we will have an answer for the future.”