When Marc Marquez, who is sensationally ruling in MotoGP with his fifth victory of the season says he ‘will always attack’ and he’s ‘not feeling any pressure’, instead his team mate Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo are definitely feeling the pressure.
The impressive rookie not only set a new lap record at Brno, he has become the first rider since Valentino Rossi in 2008 to win four or more successive races in the premier class and also the youngest rider to have won four successive premier class Grand Prix races.
He has also equalled the most podiums scored by a rider in his rookie season, matching Valentino Rossi, who finished on the podium ten times in 2000.
“I’m so happy! Before we came here I didn’t expected win, because Jorge and Valentino had both tested at Brno recently and Dani is always so fast here and won the race last year.
It is a completely different track to those at which we have raced before, and these 25 points feel different to Indianapolis! This was a very hard fought win and I enjoyed myself a lot.
The battle with Jorge was really good and we are pleased with the victory.
Thanks to all the team!” said a delighted Marquez.
After struggling with pain this weekend from his collarbone injury – he took painkillers before the race – taking another second spot – even if it was behind his rookie team mate – did Dani Pedrosa a world of good, especially since he had braking issues and he did rue his strategy, leaving it a little too late before he passed Lorenzo, before trying to chase down Marquez.
“I am very happy with the result, generally speaking, because after all the problems with my injury and the doubts we’ve had at the last few races, we took a big step forward with my mental preparation today,” said Pedrosa.
“We were more ready to win here, despite not being 100%.
Unfortunately, our strategy was not the best.
I had problems overtaking throughout the race, because I couldn’t brake late and was always the third rider in the trio at the front.
I think that I made my final attack one lap too late.
If I had passed Jorge one lap earlier, maybe I would have been in with a chance of the victory.
In any case, we had the right attitude of attacking until the end and gaining ground on Marc.
I just needed another lap in order to catch him! We will try again next time.
I want to thank the team for the great job that they did this weekend”