A front-brake problem had a major effect on Marc Marquez’s Austrian MotoGP race. The Ducati rider said the lever lacked consistency, producing a different response at each braking point. He eventually finished fifth at the Red Bull Ring, more than seven seconds behind the race leader, and dropped 12 points to Jorge Martin in the championship standings. Crash.net published Marquez’s comments together with its race report.

The issue was already affecting him during the opening phase of the race. On lap 10, Marquez ran wide at Turn 1 after saying the brake had effectively gone empty and provided no expected response. The situation became serious enough for him to wonder whether he could continue. This came after several warm-up changes to his motorcycle had appeared to improve its performance, raising expectations of a stronger race.

The brake improved, but too much time was gone

The front brake gradually became more usable from one lap to the next. Marquez was then able to increase his pace and recover positions, but the delay from the early laps could not be erased. He said his speed had been sufficient to fight for second place or at least challenge for the podium. Instead, the 28-lap race ended with him in fifth.

The constructive point for the team is that Marquez believes the incident should be visible in the data. That gives the engineers material to analyse and use when searching for solutions for future races. Marquez said he felt very lucky to reach the chequered flag, having briefly thought the brake problem might force him to retire. The fifth-place result therefore reflected not only his eventual recovery, but also the time lost while he was trying to understand the lever’s behaviour at each braking point.