The Repsol Honda Team Manager analyses the seventh round of the season, in which Marc Márquez achieved his fourth victory of the year and Jorge Lorenzo crashed out on Lap 2.
A third of the way into the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, Marc Márquez leads the overall standings by 37 points, thanks to four victories and two second places from seven Grands Prix. His teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, continues his adaptation to his Honda, making continuous progress at each race. After the race last weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, Alberto Puig assessed what happened on track.
What was the strategy for the Catalunya race?
“The strategy was to try to have good pace and keep going and see how performance of the tyre was affecting the lap time. Márquez took the correct tyres and I think his race would have been successful with or without the incident.
Regarding Jorge’s incident, it was a pity because maybe it was the first time in the year we saw Jorge riding fast. But unfortunately he made a mistake. Corner 10 is really tight and it is very difficult to enter on the first laps with everyone so close, he couldn’t avoid the contact and it was a pity. We feel sorry for him, but of course also very sorry for Rossi, Dovizioso and Viñales. Sorry to them and to their teams. This is racing and these situations can happen. It happened in the past to all of us. Nobody likes to crash.”
Positive points and negative points after race?
“The positive is the victory and the negative is Jorge’s crash and the other guys who were involved. We feel sorry for all of them. Another positive point is that we had new items to test on Monday, we are always thinking about developing our bike.”
The view from pit wall during race?
“It was a very hot race and the tyre choice was a difficult one. During the race we had the incident early, then we were following Marc while he was leading the race. Of course we were also paying attention and checking on Jorge’s condition and the condition of the other riders after the race.”
Inside story apart from official comments?
“Jorge apologised quickly when the TV interviewed him in the garage during the race. He felt sorry for his colleagues and after the race he went to the Yamaha and Ducati garages to express his sadness and apologise personally.”
