“It was a big one,” Alex Marquez receives a 3 place grid drop following his “overly ambitious” move on Johann Zarco

Alex Marquez has gone onto get himself a grid drop for his opening lap collision with Johann Zarco.

“It was a big one,” Alex Marquez receives a 3 place grid drop following his “overly ambitious” move on Johann Zarco

Alex Marquez (Via Gresini Racing socials)

The 1000th MotoGP race was a rather iconic one but luck was not on Alex Marquez’s side. The Gresini Ducati MotoGP rider has received a three place grid drop for his actions during the opening lap of the French GP. The incident itself took place at the the La Chapelle right-hander. Marquez went on to be “overly ambitious “ and tried to break late.

Unfortunately, the Spaniard braked even later than Johann Zarco did. The Gresini rider tried to go in between Zarco’s bike and the inside curb of the corner. However, things didn’t go as planned for both the riders. The Frenchman on the other hand had to take evading action as he went wide. This in turn ruined the racing lime of Aleix Espargaro.

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All this led to Zarco being pushed down all the way to tenth position. Meanwhile, Aleix Espargaro went all the way to fifteenth and Brad Binder was in 18th after that. Alex Marquez on the other hand remained in eighth position. Sadly, the Spaniard had to retire from the race whilst being in a podium battle as he was caught up in Luca Marini’s fall. This took place at the Dunlop Chicane. Marquez’s penalty kick as immminent.

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Alex Marquez reflects on his grid drop for Mugello

Alex Marquez
Alex Marquez

In an interview, here is what he had to say. “I was behind Johann, and after Turn 5 I was not expecting him braking really soon,” said Marquez. “Then I was trying to avoid him on the inside, I was on the line more or less – because, you know, I was really on the inside but I was able to stop the bike,” the Spaniard said while describing his incident with Johann Zarco.

About his incident with Brad Binder, here is what he stated. “They closed the throttle so early and then I was touching just a little bit Brad – because Brad, his line is really inside there, and he was trying to defend, and I just touched him a little bit. I saw that he lost some positions, I’m sorry for that because was not my intention to go against Brad,” he said. just touched him, just a little bit. But for him it was a big one because he went really off,” he said.

The Marquez brothers were not able to finish the race. While Marc Marquez was two laps down, Alex Marquez was down by 22 laps. While Ducati has been putting solid performances with their factory team and satellite time. It will be interesting to see whether Alex will be able to win a race this season. All is there to play for in MotoGP. Alex currently sits in P12 in the championship with 41 points to his name.

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