Petronas pressure piles on
Marquez brothers celebrate in style after historic weekend
Avicious high-side during qualifying, the best first lap of his career, another record-breaking podium finish and wild family celebrations made it a dramatic and memorable Sepang MotoGP for Marc Marquez. Battered and bruised after a violent high-side in Q2 while trying to follow Fabio Quartararo, Marquez qualified outside the top 10 for just the second time in 126 MotoGP races.
But after starting 11th, he carved his way through the pack in breath-taking fashion to finish lap one in second place. And while he didn’t have the speed to seriously threaten runaway victor Maverick Viñales, his second place finish moved him to a record MotoGP points haul of 395, surpassing Jorge Lorenzo’s previous best tally of 383 set in 2010. Marquez said he drew inspiration for his early charge from the 2015 Mugello GP, which was the last time he qualified outside the top 10 in 13th. He got up to third in Italy on the first lap four years ago but reckons his Sepang surge was even better. “It was one of the best first laps of my career. Mugello 2015 was very good and on Saturday night I watched the video to see what I did and I tried to repeat. It was the perfect first lap. To be starting from 11th I still had a great fight and it means that second is still my worst result in the championship.”
‘I celebrated Alex’s title like one of my own’
The 26-year-old lost crucial time in a scrap with Jack Miller but denied the outcome might have been different had he brushed the Aussie aside earlier.
He said: “Jack was pushing as hard as me. He was burning the tyres in the first three laps. He was braking very late and opening the throttle like crazy. I could do the same but I was either going to crash or destroy the tyres. I had to be patient. But if I’m honest Maverick was faster and I wasn’t going to catch him, even if I passed Jack earlier. Maverick was super strong.”
Marquez couldn’t have been happier even after he had won himself after seeing younger brother Alex crowned Moto2 world champion after finishing second in a tense battle with title rivals Brad Binder and Tom Luthi. He said: “I celebrated Alex’s title like one of my own. It’s not easy to be the brother of Marc Marquez. There is always unbelievable pressure to win. But he’s not the brother of Marc Marquez. He is Alex Marquez, two-times world champion and 2019 Moto2 world champion.”
The pair won titles together in 2014 as well and Alex becomes the first rider to collect the crown in both Moto3 and Moto2.