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The "baby on board" sticker might have served to avert the risk of a rear-end collision, but it didn't prevent another "zero" for Alex Marquez, in the Italian GP at Mugello. An error in Turn 2 on lap 15 brought the Spaniard's race to a premature end, as he ran into his third consecutive retirement when he was fighting for the podium.
“I was pushing in a good way until that point. It’s true that I was suffering already a little bit with the front tyre, but not at that point – admitted the Gresini team rider – I was expecting to lose the front everywhere apart from there. So I was too confident in that point. I got in a little bit more, I touched the white line also a little bit more, there’s a little bump and I lost the front. A shame because we were fighting for a podium. Maybe today, I needed to say, ‘OK, take a top five’. But it was a podium and I tried for it."
An unfortunate epilogue for a race that saw the Catalan play a joker card already in Turn 1 at the start of the race, when he found himself, reluctantly, having to squeeze between Marini's Ducati and brother Marc's Honda. Also passing Jack Miller's KTM on the inside, before making a small contact with the Australian.
“It was really, really strange - commented Alex, describing the dynamics of what happened - But it’s what we always say, the slipstream absorbs you. I was not really late on the brakes because, as you saw, I didn't turn too far. And I was braking with the same pressure as always. But when you lose all the downforce and have two bikes there. It was like impossible."
It was quite a scare for the younger of the Marquez brothers, who virtually became a passenger on his own Desmosedici GP machine: "Luckily, some space opened up and I managed to squeeze in. I said ‘f**k’! I was shi**ing my pants, honestly!”
