Reigning MotoGP World Champion still tops the overall standings with a 23-point advantage, despite finished 16th at Mugello. Pedrosa is eliminated from the race on the opening lap.
Both Repsol Honda team riders crashed at Mugello; Dani Pedrosa on the first lap and Marc Márquez, four laps later.
Marc Márquez was second coming into the first corner, although he went wide and dropped two positions. He was third before the end of the opening lap was back into second –behind Jorge Lorenzo- on Lap 3.
On the fifth lap, the reigning MotoGP World Champion lost the front of his bike and crashed. He got back on track in eighteenth position and crossed the finish line sixteenth.
Marc Marquez | 16th +39.311
“We’ve been struggling the whole weekend to be perfectly comfortable with these particular spec tyres, but I wasn’t suffering that much in the race today. Instead, the front folded quite unexpectedly, as I wasn’t pushing that hard, and I crashed, though I almost saved it! When I re-joined the race, our pace wasn’t bad at all, despite the bike being a bit damaged, so that’s okay. Furthermore, we still have a 23-point advantage in the rankings, and this is also very positive; last year at this point we were 37 points back. Today also demonstrates what I’ve been saying for a while: things this year are pretty tight, the season is long, and anything can happen. That said, we’ll keep working as usual at Montmelò, where we’ll go back to the usual tyre spec, and we’ll try and come back strong.”
Dani Pedrosa | DNF
“It was a very difficult weekend, as we’ve had many problems getting a good feeling here at Mugello. Only in this morning’s warm-up were we able to find a setup that gave me better confidence. Unfortunately, I was starting very far back on the grid, and that often increases the risks. I was aiming to recover some ground at the start, and I did pass some riders but found myself parallel to Taka when unfortunately I slightly touched Bautista’s rear tyre and crashed, taking Takagami out. I’m really sorry for that. It’s also a shame I didn’t have the chance to see how the setup changes worked or how many positions I would be able to recover in the race, but we’ll try to improve in the next race.”
