Alex Marquez says “stupid, unacceptable” mistake cost British GP podium

Alex Marquez says he could have fought the Aprilias for second in the British Grand Prix had he not made a “stupid” and “unacceptable” mistake.

The younger Marquez again emerged as Ducati’s top runner at Silverstone, charging from seventh on the grid in the first part of the race to knock on the podium positions.

But shortly after clearing the factory RS-GP of Marco Bezzecchi for third on lap 9 of 20, the Spaniard suffered a major scare at Abbey, dropping back to fifth.

Although he was able to repass Pedro Acosta’s KTM without breaking a sweat, Bezzecchi had something extra in reserve for the final stages of the race, forcing Marquez to settle for fourth place.

While he finished almost two seconds clear of the next-best Ducati rider, and enjoyed his second-best points-haul of the season, the 30-year-old couldn’t hide his disappointment after the race.

“When you lose a podium for a stupid mistake…. It was quite unacceptable on my part because at that moment I just missed the brake point a little bit,” he said.

“When you have more potential and you see that the podium was realistic, [it hurts].”

With Jorge Martin finishing just seven tenths up on Bezzecchi in third, Marquez believes he could have fought for the best-of-the-rest spot behind lights-to-flag winner Raul Fernandez.

“I think our chances were for second position,” he said. “That mistake at Turn 1 when I overtook Marco, at that moment, I was too optimistic and I braked a little bit later. I moved with the front brake and then I lost the rear contact. 

“That cost us the podium today but anyway we did a really solid race, being fast until the end, trying until the end; that was the main thing.

“I think Marco played his card and he saved something for the last two laps and he was just faster than us in that point, saving a lot of rear tyre.”

Despite clearly having an edge over other Ducati riders during the weekend, Marquez qualified behind both Fabio di Giannantonio and his brother Marc in seventh.

The Gresini rider believes his low starting position severely compromised his chances of finishing at the front, after wrapping up the weekend with two fourth-place finishes.

“Today, what [Aprilia] had more than me was [an advantage on] the starting grid. I think P7 penalised us a lot,” he said. “Now, the team has chances again, not to be with Raul, but to be on the podium."