Marco Bezzecchi
Michael Laverty says Marc Marquez took too great a risk before crashing in Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying. Marquez starts on the front row but may have cost himself pole with the error.
The Spaniard set his best time on his very first lap, and even that was good enough to put him within a tenth of Fabio Di Giannantonio’s eventual pole time. He then went down at turn four and had to scamper back to the Ducati garage.
Marquez is now without a pole position in his last six weekends, his longest run since the 2024 season, when he was riding a year-old bike at Gresini. He does at least appear closer to his best physically this weekend after showing signs of clear discomfort in Thailand – a legacy of his shoulder injury last autumn.
Marc Marquez’s crash in Brazilian GP qualifying
Will the tight field force Marc into more mistakes this year?
Neil Hodgson and Michael Laverty agree on Marc Marquez’s Brazil crash
Speaking on TNT Sports immediately after the crash, Neil Hodgson said Marquez asked far too much from his Ducati bike. The Goiania circuit has been treacherous all weekend, partly due to flooding in the lead-up to the race.
“He’s asking so much from it there,” Hodgson said. “He knows the sensations, the feeling on a normal, grippy track. You can’t get away with it here, especially that corner.”
After the session, Hodgson’s colleague Michael Laverty agreed that he should have heeded warnings from other riders. Turn four had already caught out several riders on Saturday, including KTM’s Pedro Acosta only minutes earlier.
The full Q2 results in Brazil
Fabio Quartararo up in P4 while Francesco Bagnaia struggles again…
“When you watch it back, he was taking a few liberties. It’s sideways on the way into a corner that everyone’s already tipped off on.
“Because it’s that late apex, you go in with angle, still with that front brake on. He’s probably in the rear brake too. He’s taken liberties, but he wanted pole.”
Marquez has an excellent track record at new circuits – Goiania is new for all of the current riders – and he puts that down to his historically ‘reckless’ approach. Perhaps that bit him to a degree here.
What did Marc Marquez have to say about his Q2 crash?
In an interview with the British broadcaster in parc ferme, Marquez put the mistake down to a lack of ‘reference’ points. Both Friday sessions were disrupted by the weather, so FP2, immediately before qualifying, was his first truly representative outing.
In the Spaniard’s defence, the crash count reached double figures across the sessions, reflecting the immense challenge the riders were facing.
- READ MORE: Ducati staff privately admit Marc Marquez may not be at his ‘very best’ at Brazilian Grand Prix
“The first time we ride in the dry was the time attack, just that 30 minutes. We weren’t able to know the brake points very well.
“We saw many crashes because we know where the reference was, even if we need to set up the electronics a bit better.”
Elsewhere at Ducati, Marquez’s factory teammate Francesco Bagnaia qualified 11th, another disappointing result for the Italian. Gresini duo Fermin Aldeguer and Alex Marquez start on the third row, while Franco Morbidelli missed out on a Q2 spot.
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