Marquez attempted a move at turn nine early on before leaving a small gap, which allowed Bagnaia to sneak in his front tire to get right beside Marquez in the following corner. Marquez then attempted an audacious move around the outside of Bagnaia in an attempt to close his door at the exit, but the move was never on as both riders clashed and Marquez had to close off the throttle, allowing Bagnaia through.

Marquez again went for a similar maneuver in the following lap but this time again Bagnaia was able to make a switchback overtake to close off their battle, but a bit cleanly this time.

In the final laps, Marquez could not keep pace with the reigning world champion and thus had to finish in second place. But despite losing out on his first win since the 2021 San Marino Grand Prix, Marquez can be happy with his pace as he was able to match Bagnaia for the majority of the race.

“Yeah, I mean, it was an important race, especially in the beginning I was a little bit hesitant,” Marc Marquez said about his race. “Because, you know, I crashed yesterday, and then in the beginning with the front end I was stiff, and then I lost some positions, but the speed was there to come back.”

“The speed was there to fight with Bagnaia, and, yeah, it was a tight fight, even like old times, you know. This is good in racing, I tried to close the door, but he was inside, and this is something that happens in racing. He was super good, he pushed, he did the fastest lap of the race, I think.”

“And then I tried to follow him, but he had a bit more but super happy for this first podium. As you see, it doesn’t matter what happened in the past. We will fight until the end!”

Had he not been slightly hesitant in the earlier laps which allowed Bagnaia, Martin and Bezzecchi through, then we might have seen a different outcome…

“I was one of the fastest guys out there so this makes me happy and I enjoyed it! It’s true that the only mistakes in the race was that in the first five laps, you know I’m human, and it was a little bit too heavy on the shoulders, the mistake from me yesterday on the sprint. I was a bit extra careful.”

“But the most important thing is that I have the pace and as soon as I overtake Bezzecchi, I put my rhythm like in the practice and I catch Pecco and I knew at that moment that the first overtake was the time to do it because if not, the front temperature goes up and then I cannot stop well the bike. It was a very limited situation but you know, when I was there on turn 10 I had a flashback from Valencia when Martin did [the move] in a similar situation to me and I flew [off the bike].”

“It’s true that maybe it’s not your mistake but you take zero points so I prefer to pick up the bike to lose the position and then try again the next lap but it was already too late for my front tyre temperature.”

“I gave up at the correct time because if not Pecco or me or both would crash because in the end when I go in on that turn 10 I and I received the impact on the arm and leg from his front wheel. At that moment, it’s two things: I crash because I lose the rear, or he will crash like yesterday, so I just gave up and picked up the bike, and I closed the gas to not have the high side and yeah, I lost the position, but I take the 20 points.”

Championship leader Jorge Martin crashed out from the lead which will once again make the championship battle wide open as Marquez now sits just 32 points shy of the lead.

“Let’s see in the next races, but I just saw the standings, and with one of the worst starts of my career, I’m only 32 points behind the leader so yeah let’s see. We’ll just keep going and keep enjoying it if I’m happy and fast.”

“I’m smooth and I mean the time is comes [naturally ] and this also brings me a lot of confidence and the good thing for me is that still I don’t have any crashes due to overriding I mean of course yesterday I crashed but it was a wet patch but not due to overriding.”