'I was trying to do a Doohan-style race' says Marquez after crash
Marc Marquez wanted to impersonate Honda hero and five-time world champion Mick Doohan at Phillip Island in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
And he did a perfect job.
The only problem was it meant crashing while holding a comfortable lead as he tried to equal Doohan's 12-wins-in-a-season record.
For 17 of 27 laps, Marquez was in total control of the Island race and seemingly back to the winning ways that delivered him 10 consecutive victories earlier in the season.
And then he crashed; smoke pouring off the front tire as he locked the brakes on the downhill run from Lukey Heights into the Turn 10 hairpin.
In 1997, Doohan was also crushing his rivals in his home race when he lost the front and went out of the race.
With his second world championships secured in Japan last week, Marquez returned to his free-wheeling ways in a bid to win at the Island.
"I was trying to do a Doohan-style race and I really did it," Marquez said as he explained his sudden exit from the lead.
"He was leading here when he crashed. Like Doohan, I tried to push a lot from the first lap and open a gap and I did it, but then when I was at the easiest point of the race I crashed.
"The important thing was that in the most difficult point of the race, in the opening laps, when normally Yamaha is stronger I was really strong."
Marquez embarrassingly crashed out with just 10 laps remaining and allowed Yamaha to claim a clean sweep of the podium with Valentino Rossi leading home Jorge Lorenzo and Bradley Smith.
"I was trying to do a different kind of race,” said Marquez, who has won 11 times this season.
“I was pushing a lot from the beginning, but then from the middle of the race I saw it was getting colder and it was so difficult to get temperature on the right side of the tire.
“The crash was so strange. Because on that brake point I was 4 kph slower and using less brake pressure but the front locked. The crash was exactly the same as many others.
"When I saw that I was 4 seconds ahead in 15 laps I knew I was doing a great race but in the end this can happen.
"Without pressure you pay less attention and try some things to know for the next season."
The Yamaha podium trio all used the extra-soft front tire while Marquez and the other Honda riders went for the new asymmetric soft.
“We knew there was some risk with this tire because it was asymmetric, but the part in the brake point was the hard compound," he said.
“But the problem is that, with Honda, it was impossible to finish the race with the extra soft front, the tire that Lorenzo struggled with.
"With Honda the extra soft was destroyed after 10 laps and, for that reason, we didn't have any option.”
Despite his early exit from the Australian GP, Marquez still has two chances to go ahead of Doohan's win record for a season.
But that means that Marquez must win the next two races - Sepang and Valencia - to take his tally to 13 victories.
