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Spain’s Marc Marquez admits a conservative approach may be key to his winning the MotoGP title again this season.

The Honda rider was forced to settle for runner-up at the weekend’s San Marino round at Misano, the 13th round of 19 in the 2018 series, increasing his championship lead to 67 points over Italian Ducati rival Andrea Dovizioso (pictured here).

Marquez revealed he was ‘on the limit’ throughout the Misano race while chasing the Ducati duo ahead of him and even though he profited with second place when Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo crashed out on the penultimate lap he felt he didn’t have the pace to match the factory Ducati riders.

The reigning MotoGP world champion still opened up his points lead, with Dovizioso taking second place in the riders’ standings from Italian legend Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), and despite missing out to the Italian rider he feels maximising his result without taking major risks will be key for the remainder of 2018.

“Today Dovi was riding perfect. I was losing a lot in the two main accelerations, but then I was able to recover on some brake points,” Dovizioso said. “But all race, all the 27 laps like this is difficult even if I managed it well. When I saw Dovi was going away, I tried to be behind Jorge to attack him at the end.

“But honestly speaking, I was on the limit. I was pushing too much in some areas. When you never give up sometimes you get something. For this we have 20 points. We go from Misano 67 points, so happy and now we are going to Aragon that is a racetrack that I like.”

Marquez, who will remain in Misano for a private test, says he’ll continue to attack ‘every weekend’ but only if he can protect his healthy championship lead rather than risking a mistake.

The Repsol Honda rider said if he attacked too hard to try to catch Dovizioso in Misano he risked crashing like Lorenzo and get ‘pushed to do a mistake’ which would risk his healthy points advantage.

“He [Dovizioso] wants to push me to do a mistake,” Marquez explained. “I have experience. I’m pushing every weekend. I pushed like in Austria until the last lap. I pushed here and in Brno. I push but under control.

“Every Thursday we thought that we will win the race. Then during the weekend we see, but the mentality is what I say, attack to defend. What I cannot do is just do a stupid mistake.

“Today I tried to push. In Austria I pushed a lot until the last lap. In Aragon I will push again, but we will see. If we cannot win, the way is finish in the podium all the races. This is my target.”

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Results from the 2018 San Marino MotoGP at Misano (round 13 of 19):

1. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (GP18) 42m 5.426s
2. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda (RC213V) 42m 8.248s
3. Cal Crutchlow GBR LCR Honda (RC213V) 42m 12.695s
4. Alex Rins ESP Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 42m 20.113s
5. Maverick Viñales ESP Movistar Yamaha (YZR-M1) 42m 21.442s
6. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda (RC213V) 42m 22.834s
7. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha (YZR-M1) 42m 24.512s
8. Andrea Iannone ITA Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 42m 27.230s
9. Alvaro Bautista ESP Angel Nieto Team (GP17) 42m 29.345s
10. Johann Zarco FRA Monster Yamaha Tech3 (YZR-M1) 42m 32.985s
11. Danilo Petrucci ITA Pramac Ducati (GP18) 42m 36.124s
12. Franco Morbidelli ITA EG 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V)* 42m 38.367s
13. Takaaki Nakagami JPN LCR Honda (RC213V)* 42m 38.887s
14. Aleix Espargaro ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 42m 41.112s
15. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Team (GP18) 42m 41.238s
16. Bradley Smith GBR Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) 42m 51.926s
17. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Ducati Team (GP18) 42m 52.040s
18. Jack Miller AUS Pramac Ducati (GP17) 42m 56.019s
19. Hafizh Syahrin MAL Monster Yamaha Tech3 (YZR-M1)* 43m 0.594s
20. Karel Abraham CZE Angel Nieto Team (GP16) 43m 7.681s
21. Scott Redding GBR Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 43m 14.901s
22. Thomas Luthi SWI EG 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V)* 43m 18.034s
23. Christophe Ponsson FRA Reale Avintia (GP16)* +1 lap

Stefan Bradl GER HRC Honda Team (RC213V) DNF

Pol Espargaro ESP Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) DNF

Xavier Simeon ESP Reale Avintia (GP17)* DNF

World Championship standings:

1. Marc Marquez SPA Repsol Honda (RC213V) 221 points
2. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (GP18) 154 points (-67)
3. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha (YZR-M1) 151 points (-70)
4. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Ducati Team (GP18) 130 points (-91)
5. Maverick Viñales SPA Movistar Yamaha (YZR-M1) 124 points (-97)
6. Cal Crutchlow GBR LCR Honda (RC213V) 119 points (-102)
7. Johann Zarco FRA Monster Yamaha Tech3 (YZR-M1) 110 points (-111)
8. Danilo Petrucci ITA Pramac Ducati (GP18) 110 points (-111)
9. Andrea Iannone ITA Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 92 points (-129)
10. Alex Rins SPA Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 79 points (-142)
11. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda (RC213V) 76 points (-145)
12. Alvaro Bautista SPA Angel Nieto Team (GP17) 64 points (-157)
13. Jack Miller AUS Pramac Ducati (GP17) 61 points (-160)
14. Tito Rabat SPA Reale Avintia (GP17) 35 points (-186)
15. Pol Espargaro SPA Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) 32 points (-189)
16. Franco Morbidelli ITA EG 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 26 points (-195)
17. Hafizh Syahrin MAL Monster Yamaha Tech3 (YZR-M1) 24 points (-197)
18. Aleix Espargaro SPA Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 19 points (-202)
19. Bradley Smith GBR Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) 15 points (-206)
20. Takaaki Nakagami JPN LCR Honda (RC213V)* 14 points (-207)
21. Scott Redding GBR Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 12 points (-209)
22. Mika Kallio FIN Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) 6 points (-215)
23. Karel Abraham CZE Angel Nieto Team (GP16) 4 points (-217)
24. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Team (GP18) 1 points (-220)

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