Marquez rules out win after rough Mandalika day with Rins clash

Marc Marquez said he no longer expected to challenge for victory at the Indonesian Grand Prix after a difficult opening day at Mandalika that left him needing to contest Q1 and later involved him in a contentious on-track clash that drew a long-lap penalty. The two-time world champion crashed twice in Friday practice, reported problems with rear-tyre performance and described his priority as finishing sessions rather than pushing for faster laps.

Marquez said the team’s immediate goal became avoiding more incidents after the second crash. "The strategy was not to crash two times, when I crashed twice, especially the second one, the strategy became to finish the session," he said. He added that he felt strong in first practice but "in the afternoon I went out and started to suffer a lot with the rear" and that he lacked the confidence to push. After Friday’s running he said a top-five finish would count as a successful weekend.

The weekend’s on-track drama continued in Saturday’s sprint, when Marquez and Yamaha rider Alex Rins made contact while battling for position at the start. Rins was forced off track and dropped to 18th, ultimately recovering to 13th, while Marquez served a...