Marquez Praises Honda But Feels Aggrieved By Rossi Move

Repsol Honda have endured a tough time of late, in particular the reigning word champion Marc Marquez. The Spaniard came into the Dutch TT off the back of two DNFs in Italy and Barcelona, so he needed a reversal of fortunes immediately if he is to salvage anything from the 2015 season.

Honda tried a 'hybrid' RC213V this weekend which consisted of the 2015 swingarm and engine, and the 2014 chassis in an attempt to try and give the Spaniard the feeling and stability over a race distance he has been longing for. A crash out of the box on Thursday morning probably didn't do his confidence any good, but things improved dramatically as the weekend progressed. In qualifying he came out swinging, setting a lap record of 1:33.005 on his first flying lap. He couldn't quite keep that pace up in the second half of the session but 3rd on the grid was a confidence boost.

Opting to run the medium front tyre for the race displayed his confidence. Though giving him greater braking stability the tyre yields less edge grip, and both of his crashes in the previous two Grand Prix were front-end related whilst running a harder option. Encountering no such problems Marquez went toe-to-toe with Valentino Rossi for 26 laps of pure theatre. He'd taken the lead briefly with seven laps to go but lost out three laps later. Still with some grip available on the front he spent the final laps studying the best line through the Geert Timmer chicane for a last-gasp lunge.

Going for the move on Rossi, the Italian had already began turning into the corner but Marquez was committed. The pair made the minutest of touches which forced Rossi to run on. Despite Rossi already having the corner at the point of impact Marquez still felt aggrieved at the Italian's antics.

“You can't imagine what I feel, I'm really happy because we return to the top. We came back fighting for the win which is the most important. I'm happy because we usually struggle here. Most importantly though, I enjoyed the bike again. There's still some areas to improve. I was quiet and cam during the race and studied Rossi a lot, learning when I could overtake him and attack. I made a mistake with three laps to go, but I made it back. The whole race I focused on studying the last chicane perfectly, I knew where to the bike to limit his space but I didn't think he'd cut the corner. In the end I feel we won the race, but five points don't really matter for me.”

What was your view of the final corner incident? Let us know in the comments.

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