Misano win impossible without the rain

Marc Marquez says his MotoGP victory in the San Marino Grand Prix would have been impossible without the mid-race rain shower.

The eight-time world champion made it back-to-back wins at Misano following his victory in Aragon last weekend.

Marquez held off a challenge from world champion Francesco Bagnaia, who was second, while championship leader Jorge Martin gambled on the rain increasing and swapped for the wet bike set up mid-race.

However, the downpour failed to materialise and Marquez was able to increase his advantage over Ducati’s Bagnaia and means he now sits 53 points behind Martin in the title race.

Marquez, who was 3.1s clear at the end having started in ninth on grid, said: “This one was totally unexpected, especially because starting in ninth place, without those drops it was impossible to fight with the top guys.

“We knew that our second part of the race was super strong and for me, the most important thing.

“One point is to lead the race, but the other point is to open a gap to the world champion and to Pecco who is super-fast here.

“I was able to ride in a very good way, very fast and defend in the first part of that second part of that race. And then attack in the last laps.”

Martin went into the pits on lap seven to take his wet bike while running in second place, but Marquez says he never even considered swapping his Gresini Desmosedici GP23 bike for the wet set-up.

He added: “Of course, at one point if there was one more lap raining like this then maybe it’s time to go in.

“But especially when I saw that nobody went in and only one rider [did] you need to stay out and this is what I did.

“I controlled in a good way, but then on the next lap is when I attacked. I gave everything. I saw some riders crashed because it was super wet in turns one and two but we managed it well.”

Bagnaia has slashed Martin’s lead in the championship to seven points with second place at Misano.