Marquez wins spectacular Aragon battle to take his sixth win this season; solid fifth place for Pedrosa

“I woke up this morning with the idea that today I could take a risk. I hadn’t felt totally at ease during the weekend with the hard rear spec tyre so, after the warm-up, I said to my team that I wanted to use the soft rear. That started many meetings and discussions but in the end I won the race because I could convince my box to take that gamble! In the end, it was the correct choice. I had a good start but soon after I almost lost the front in a dirty spot on the track, so I had to release the brakes and go a bit wide. I didn’t realize until the end that Lorenzo had crashed. Anyway, the fight was very tight with Dovi and Iannone as well; it was a hard fight but within the limit. This is MotoGP, and it’s what the fans enjoy to watch. Motorland is one of my favourite tracks, and I enjoyed so much riding here over the weekend even if the pressure was high, with events, people, and many things to do every day. I mean, it’s good but also demanding. Even with this, I managed to remain focused, work well with the team, and ultimately to stop Ducati’s momentum. This morning I listened to “In my feelings” from Drake and in the honour lap I thought back to that song and it was great. Anyway, now more than ever it’s the moment to keep calm and manage well the race weekends because I want to win the Championship and to do that you must remain fully concentrated.”

“Today I could be more competitive than other races and closer to the front group. Unfortunately, I think the key to the race today was the tyre choice. It’s a shame because my riding and my pace was good but the grip on track wasn’t that high and the hard rear tyre wasn’t offering the same grip we had in the practices; maybe the soft better matched today’s track conditions. I was losing some tenths every lap and couldn’t stick to the others. Otherwise, today I could’ve fought for a podium finish or the victory. Step by step we are improving a little bit; let’s see if we can be faster in the next race.”