Marc Márquez (P1) – “I felt really good on the bike, just like in yesterday’s Sprint. I saw that in the early laps, Marco (Bezzecchi) was pushing hard and taking some risks, so I decided to wait as the race was a really long one. As soon as I noticed the first drop in terms of grip, I overtook him and pulled a gap, and then controlled the race. To be honest, the feeling with the bike was superb — even better than the one I had at the Sachsenring. I was riding smoothly and had some margin to go even quicker. I’m very happy, I enjoyed this first part of the season: the team and the engineers have really done an excellent job.”
Marco Bezzecchi (P2) – “I am extremely pleased. It was a fantastic race, and I took some risks – especially in the first two laps, particularly overtaking Quartararo, but it worked because, in my opinion, that was the key to the race. On a track like this one, if I hadn’t moved into the lead straight away, the rear tyre would have had difficulty. At the same time, I knew that Marc was managing his race and that he had something up his sleeve, so I decided not to exaggerate. I pushed, but I tried to be fast and ride clean. Unfortunately, when he overtook me, I was unable to be as fast as him. He had a bit more than I did, especially after the midrace point. Towards the end, I managed to get back to a good pace. In fact, I did my best time on the final lap.”
Pedro Acosta (P3) – “The last time I was on the podium was in Thailand last year and it’s been a long journey to come back here. I want to thank all my orange crew: it was not easy for them, also to handle me when we had tough moments! We’ll keep going. We’ll have a break now and try for more at Red Bull Ring.”
Francesco Bagnaia (P4) – “As the race progressed, I managed rear-end traction better and felt more comfortable as soon as I lowered the traction control level. As we didn’t have a dry FP2, I wasn’t able to do proper work with the mapping, so with less traction control this area did improve. The front-end, however, did not allow me to hit the brakes hard. I’ve always been a rider who was hard to pass under braking, while the situation is opposite right now. We’re working in different areas in order to improve. Surely, the approach to the season has changed after these many races as it’s hard to think about fighting with Marc in these conditions — we must be realists. We need to reset and do the best we can, keeping Alex (Márquez) as our reference point.”
Fabio Quartararo (P6) – “I had a similar race to yesterday. The first five laps are complicated for us. We started with a completely different setting this morning that I really like. It was nice to experience it in the race and try something different. My pace was not bad, especially on the last five laps. We know where we can improve, especially when riding in a group. We are working hard on this.”
Jorge Martin (P7) – “I started with the goal of turning laps and observing. From the tenth lap on, I wanted to figure out where I could improve and grow. We did a great job and constructed a weekend in constant progression. There was a bit of uncertainty as to how my body would react. You have to start with something and doing it with a seventh place is a great result after the period of down time. However, the result only counts relatively. The important thing now is to close the gap behind the leaders and focus on where we can improve.”
Brad Binder (P8) – “I managed to get from 19th to 8th in the end so, yeah, I still never had the pace I was looking for but somehow we were a little better today. I found a way to be better in mid-corner and exit but I was losing a lot of time in braking and entry. This is something we have to work on and find the combination, if we can do that then it can be very positive. We tried something completely different with the bike, a little bit with the engine character and it helped a bit with the edge grip and the drive. It just seemed to be a more controllable in my hand, so I was really happy about that and by no means am I happy with 8th position but – even though it doesn’t look like it – we are slowly starting to figure it out. The really good thing is that both Pedro and Enea were super-fast this weekend so I have some good things to check and figure out how they are doing it.”
Pol Espargaro (P9) – “I had a little of everything this weekend. In yesterday’s Sprint I was super-relaxed and enjoyed it so much, and in the race maybe I asked a little bit too much of myself, especially at the start and with a new system we have. Then I calmed myself and said ‘I am here to enjoy…’The bike was good and working well this weekend from the beginning. I came back quite quick, and I think the rhythm was there to be fighting for 5-6th positions…but it was P9, and with that I can say I was quite pleased. There are three KTMs in the top ten, which is amazing. While I am racing I am testing as well and I think there are some updates about to come on the bike that are promising. I think they are going to come soon for our factory guys. I’m pretty positive for the second part of the year.”
Jack Miller (P10) – “It was a long and tough race. I had a decent start—better than in the Sprint Race—and was feeling pretty good. We were very conservative, not being completely sure about the tires. I found a good rhythm behind Jorge, and everything was fine until about seven laps from the end. I changed the engine brake setting, and pretty much at the same time, I started to struggle in Turn 3. The clutch was kind of binding up, basically not giving me any engine braking. It was even difficult to tell which gear I was in, as you couldn‘t really feel the downshifts. So, I had to reinvent my riding in those final laps, which was tough. I had been able to brake pretty late to defend against overtaking moves, but once the issue started, I had to leave some margin and became vulnerable to Brad and Pol catching me. I’m not happy with the last three laps, but it is what it is.”
Fermin Aldeguer (P11) – “I’m happy, as we had a good race with a good pace, considering we also here we didn’t have much dry track-time, and it was my first time here. The penalty doesn’t take away anything from what we were able to show.”
Luca Marini (P12) – “Good to get some more points today, a little bit of extra motivation heading into the summer. But it was another tough race for us today, like I said yesterday – this circuit really allows you to make the most of a MotoGP bike and we are struggling with top speed. The increased temperature today also dropped the rear grip which stopped us from having the same turning. I am confident that once some new parts come, we can make a good step and match the riders who were close to us at the start of the year. The summer break is a good chance for everyone to finalise these parts so we keep working like always.”
Johann Zarco (P13) – “Already from the first lap, I didn’t have the best feeling. As the laps went by, I felt the rear tyre was getting hotter than it did yesterday. I was the only one on the soft rear tyre, and that compromised my performance in the end. At least I managed to finish the race and pick up some points. We need to learn from this first part of the season, which had a lot of positives, and keep fighting to improve and do better in the second half. I want to thank the team for their hard work.”
Alex Rins (P15) – “It was tough to do better, not in terms of results but in terms of lap times. It is hard to fight. If we had to focus on just one thing to improve right now, it’s qualifying so we can start in a better way. We need more consistency in qualifying, and then the race is another step. We need to keep working after the three-week break.”
Fabi Di Giannantonio (P16) – “The weekend was tough overall. We missed the feelings of the last races. It was great to be back in Brno, the track is amazing, but we could not find a proper way of working in the direction that is the quickest way to go fast. I take all the responsibilities; I have to be more precise with the team to give better feedback. We just must regroup, to refocus and restarting from Austria with the good sensations of the last races that we’ve done.”
Miguel Oliveira (P17) – “I was already in Turn 7 with my knee down when Fermín came in where there was absolutely no space and pushed me off, causing me to lose four or five positions. That basically ruined my race. But even before that, something strange happened with the tires, I couldn‘t get anywhere near the pace I had in the morning‘s warm-up, which was quite surprising. I did a 1‘53” in the warm-up, and in the race, I couldn‘t go below 1‘55”. Really strange. There‘s definitely something to analyze there. As for Fermín, there‘s nothing more to say, he got his penalty after the race, so that‘s fine.”
Joan Mir (DNF) – “I made a good start to the race and was there with the leading group in the first laps. I was confident in my pace and had everything under control early in the race. Alex had tried to overtake me a couple of times earlier in the lap and I had already felt some contacts in the rear. Then in the chicane he lost the front, and he touched me, and I finished on the ground. There’s nothing more to say about it. The best way to avoid situations like this is to be faster, this is what we have to work on as a team.”
Alex Marquez (DNF) – “It’s a pity because we had excellent feeling today, something changed in the warm up and we could have ‘easily’ finished in the top five. I’m sorry for Mir, it was obviously an unwanted incident. This is a mistake we can learn from, we need to be more patient in a weekend where things don’t go as well as expected. Now we’ll take some rest in order to be in the best possible form in Austria in three weeks.”
Enea Bastianini (DNF) – “The start was not as good as yesterday but I made a comeback, and coming up to 4th I braked hard for Turn 3 without any slipstream and I was with a lot of angle on entry. It was a mistake. I wanted to fight for the podium again today but it didn’t work out. The track here and the new tarmac was good for us this weekend. We knew straight away we could fight for something good. I think we have improved the riding and we made a step with the bike also.”
