Marc Marquez has revealed that a front ride height device issue botched his start in Sunday’s Austrian MotoGP race.
The Gresini Ducati rider has provided details behind his disastrous start to the Austrian MotoGP, which include a damaged tyre valve, issues with front ride height device, and collision at Turn 1, which sent him tumbling from third to 13th.
Everything went south even before Marquez had completed the warm-up lap for the race after his mechanics found a cracked tyre valve as they made the final tyre pressure check just before the start.
While they were soon able to replace the wheel, Marquez claims he unintentionally disengaged his front ride height device during the warm-up lap while focused on getting the swapped tyre up to temperature.
Unable get his start device sorted out in time before the lights went out, the eight-time world champion suffered an excruciatingly slow start, lost ground and collided with Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli through Turn 1, albeit neither rider was hurt.
Marquez found himself down in 13th place, but immediately made his way back up the field by diving on the inside of the chicane several times to reclaim positions and eventually finished fourth, behind Ducati stablemates Pecco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin, and Enea Bastianini.
“Today we were unlucky,” Marquez admitted. “Thirty minutes before the start, when the mechanics go to check the tyre pressure, the valve broke.
“Then, as you see in the image, they were running to Michelin to change it from that tyre to another rim. But during that procedure that was super good and they did a very good job, but the tyre temperature drops a lot. Then, that chaos created everything.
“On the warm-up lap I was concentrating to put more temperature on the front tyre, then on the last straight I braked and I engaged well the first device, but then I braked again and it disengaged.
“Then I didn’t have enough speed, so without that front device it was difficult to start well. I was super calm in the first corner and said I would brake early to not exaggerate and let’s see, and then I receive a big contact from the left side and then we went wide.
“From 13th place, we start step-by-step.”
Considering that he was the only rider to lap in the mid-1:30s during the race’s final stages, some may argue that Marquez’s problems at the start cost him the opportunity to challenge Francesco Bagnaia for the win.
“When you pull up to the line before the start, you have to use the brakes hard, that’s why you see them stoppie [to] engage the front device,” MotoGP.com pit lane reporter Simon Crafar said. “Marc’s was not engaged.”
Marquez lost the race in Austria at the exact time he pulled up to the starting grid, which was before the race even started.
“He [Marquez] lost the race,” Alex Lowes told TNT Sports. “It was a shame. As soon as I saw his bike was not ready, his device was not activated, his race was over.
“Five or six good passes from Marc shows that he would’ve been in a battle with the second group. He would have been in a battle with Bastianini for the podium.
“It’s good to see from Marc but the race was over in the first 10 seconds for him. You saw how disappointed he was because it was a chance to be on the podium.”
Michael Laverty highlighted the challenge of starting a modern MotoGP bike without the start device.
“It’s like riding a road bike off the line. It’s going to take three seconds to 100km/h,” Laverty told TNT Sports. “The rest are going one second faster in that few hundred metres.
“The game was over for him. He was lucky to stay on. For most riders the contact from behind [with Morbidelli] would be enough to [take a] hand off the handlebars.
“But he was quite strong and sturdy, in this instance. He had to fight back. He dug deep. He may have had a podium on the cards today but the game was over when he lined up, and the launch device didn’t engage.”
Marquez currently sits fourth in the world championship, 22 points behind third-place rider Enea Bastianini, who he will replace at the factory Ducati team next season, and 83 points behind Francesco Bagnaia.
