Marquez off led to winning strategy gamble
ByAutoSport
Updated 17/07/2016 at 17:01 GMT
Marc Marquez says that he gambled on his ultimately successful early switch to slick tyres in MotoGP's German Grand Prix because of his Turn 8 off that dropped him down the order.
Marc Marquez (Honda HRC) during German GP 2016
Image credit: Honda Motor Co. Ltd
The championship leader took a dominant victory at the Sachsenring after being the first of the major contenders to switch bikes to take on slick tyres, which eventually gave him a huge advantage over the race leaders.
But Marquez had fallen away from the lead battle after going through the gravel at Turn 8 dropped him from sixth to ninth when still on wets, which led him to taking the risk to switch early.
"I chose the wrong tyre for the first part of the race [in the wet], I was struggling with the front, and that's why I did a big mistake in Turn 8," Marquez said.
"Then I saw the track getting drier and I said, 'When will be the best moment to change bike?'
"I took the risk because I was far from the first positions, so I decided that was the time.
"When I changed there were two or three corners completely wet, so I was very careful there, but pushing like normal in the rest of the circuit."
Marquez added that while some teams were confused about whether to use the intermediate tyre, his team had already decided it would not be considered.
"We always say in our team that the intermediate doesn't exist," he said.
"We go from wet to dry, because [otherwise] it's a big confusion for the team - how do you tell them if you want intermediate or slick?
"So I went with slicks, I took a lot of risk because the dry line was very tight, but I managed it well and then I saw that I was faster than the guys on wet tyres."
PEDROSA LOST OUT IN PITS
Marquez's team-mate Dani Pedrosa also wanted to make an early bike change as conditions improved, but he was forced to delay his pitstop due to a problem on his second machine.
"I wanted to stop [earlier] but they had a problem in the box," he said.
"For some reason they couldn't make the bike start, the slick tyre was not spinning with the engine running and I stayed out longer.
"When Marquez stopped, I saw it on the screens and I wanted to come in.
"But I didn't have the OK from the pitboard.
"I didn't expect the track to dry up so quickly but finally when I could change the bike and I started on the slick, I was not very fast, the first three or four laps.
"The tyres felt very strange and I could not push as much as I wanted. I was too slow."
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