Marc Marquez admits he took unnecessary risks on his way to victory in the MotoGP sprint race at the German Grand Prix.
The championship leader conceded after his last-lap pass for the lead that the smart strategy would have been to settle for second place behind Marco Bezzecchi in tricky wet conditions rather than hunting down and passing the Aprilia rider for the victory.
Despite starting from pole position, a Turn 1 mistake that demoted Marquez to fifth meant it initially looked like it wasn't going to be a day for the Sachsenring specialist to add more to his incredible record at the German circuit.
Slowly but inevitably picking his way through the field past Fabio Di Giannantonio - after some back-and-forth dicing - and Fabio Quartararo, it looked like he would at least be able to bank valuable championship points to further extend his lead over brother Alex.
However, finally figuring out that there was an opportunity not only to finish on the podium but to win, Marquez said the sudden realisation that it would be possible to go one better meant he ignored his better judgement and pushed on to attack at the start of the final lap.
"In one moment, I said, 'OK, second place is enough'," he admitted after the race. "Then, I remember the moment perfectly, on the next lap I did 1m29.4s and I caught him [Bezzecchi] a bit.
"On the pitwall, they didn’t put the distance, or I didn’t check. Riding on 1m29.4s I was able to reduce the gap a bit, and the next lap I thought I would attack a bit to understand.
"When I did 1m28.9s I realised I was able to catch him."
Marquez now has 12 wins at the Sachsenring, but admitted that he had broken one of his own 2025 rules to put himself in more danger than was necessary just to obtain three more points.
"Honestly speaking, I took too much risk," he explained. "For the situation we have, that second position was enough.
"This year I'm trying to work a lot on my instincts, on my character on the bike, but sometimes that goes out! Today it went out, and now we're smiling but also I was close to crashing. But it's like this, in these kinds of races sometimes you need to feel like this.
"I felt the bike, and OK I was fast but I was safe. The laptimes say I was on the limit, because I was fast, but on the bike I felt super safe."
And while it might not necessarily have been the right move to make, he also explained one other factor: that he had to deliver a gift to absent team boss Gigi Dall’Igna.
"It was only because it is the birthday of the big boss!" Marquez joked to The Race when asked why he had ignored his better judgement. "The victory is a gift to him!"
