Ducati Lenovo Team driver Marc Márquez was expected to win at the Circuit of the Americas race this past Sunday. However, due to an unexpected turn of events, his winning streak was snapped. The seven time COTA winner should have glided through this year’s MotoGP race with no contest however M. Márquez overestimated his past experience and assumed he could race as normal and without precaution.
Leading up to the race, fans’ confidence in M. Márquez made it seem that the outcome was predetermined. M. Márquez qualified on pole position for the race on Sunday with a time of 2 ‘01.088. Given the advantage, alongside his newly equipped bike that has been stated as “the best” motorcycle in MotoGP he should have been able to maintain a steady race, but in the end failed.
A race that was set for 2 p.m. wound up delayed by 10 minutes due to M. Márquez running off to switch his bike for one with the right tires so he would be better equipped to take on the wet track. On the sighting lap before the race start, M. Márquez jolted on his bike before taking off. In retrospect, this was foreshadowing for what was to come for him.
- Márquez was overconfident going into the race therefore he couldn’t gauge the track as well as he thought. Switching his bike in the beginning might have caused his crash on Lap 9 going into turn 5, which dropped him to last place.
- Márquez seemed to get back on track racing behind everyone until his retirement on Lap 13. The Spaniard chose to retire, likely due to the difficulty of climbing back up the grid. Once he got back to his crew, the look on his face was disappointing. The anticipation was no longer on him but for the remainder of the race it was on his brother Ducati MotoGP driver, Álex Márquez and Francesco Bagnaia.
The crash resulted in an unexpected top-three finish with Bagnaia placing first, Á. Márquez second and Fabio Di Giannantonio in third.
The crash caught everyone off guard, even the top three racers. If it were not for the indefinite crash that M. Márquez took, Di Giannantonio would not have been able to experience glory after the race. It was understood during their post race interviews that the success would be temporary as the next race gives the opportunity for M. Márquez to reclaim his crown back.
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