Reigning World Champion finishes third in a rain-affected race, and is now 11 points off the series lead. Dani Pedrosa places thirteenth.
Marc Márquez was second off the start, a position that he held until 10 laps from the end.
Two laps later it started to rain lightly, and the four riders at the front bunched together, although Rossi and Petrucci pulled away and Márquez finally fought for the podium with Dovizioso and Crutchlow until the end.
Márquez’ third position is the 400th podium for the Repsol Honda Team, and also the 400th for a Spanish rider in the premier class.
Dani Pedrosa started from twelfth and gradually moved up positions, reaching eighth. However, with the arrival of the rain he lost ground, finishing thirteenth.
Marc Márquez
3rd +5.201
“I’m very happy with the podium and with our race, as we were competitive enough in the dry at this track, which isn’t one of the best for us. Of course conditions were quite tricky and in this kind of situation you can lose or gain many points. I opted for the ‘safe’ option, more or less. Maybe I would have been able to try and fight for the victory, but honestly I had some warnings and thought it too dangerous for the Championship, so I decided to be consistent in the race and to push hard at the end. I paid close attention as it was hard to understand where the limit was, but in the end I was able to manage well. We’re just 11 points down on the lead and that’s important, no matter the fourth position. Now we go to some circuits that could be better for us, so let’s keep working hard and see what happens.”.
Dani Pedrosa
13th +1:10.344
“Today the race was very difficult as I didn’t have a great start and I didn’t recover the positions I hoped to. I found myself quite a distance behind, despite the fact that I was able to lap well enough compared with the guys at the front. Later, when the rain arrived, I slowed down a little bit and immediately started losing temperature in the tyres. I know that I’m very sensible in these kinds of situations and that next time I need to manage that better. I have to find a way to maintain the temperature in the slicks because when they get cold it becomes very difficult to get back on the rhythm and regain confidence. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to manage it better this weekend. The positive points are that I could make some good lap times early in the race and that I lost just one point on the leader in the Championship standings.”
