Marquez: Vinales “right to be angry” after Mugello qualifying

Marquez followed Vinales on both of their runs in Q1 at Mugello on Saturday, with the Honda rider using this to sail through to Q2 while Vinales ultimately missed out and will start 13th.

Although visibly frustrated with Marquez – who even followed Vinales through pitlane when he tried to find clear air – the Yamaha rider didn’t blame Marquez for his Q1 exit, admitting he simply wasn’t quick enough.

Yamaha boss Massimo Meregalli branded Marquez’s tactics “not fair”, which the Honda rider agreed with and says he apologised to Vinales.

“Yeah, I met Maverick before entering the TVs,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com for his version of events after qualifying 11th.

“First of all, I apologised because I know it was not completely fair and what I said is ‘you have reason to be angry’.

“But in another hand, today in the morning I felt not so bad, in the afternoon I felt really, really bad.

“I mean, for some reason about physical condition, the bike, everything, I felt not so good and I stopped in FP4 before the end and I said to the team ‘I don’t feel the bike, I don’t feel anything, we need to follow somebody’.

“We checked the list, the fastest guy was Vinales. If it was another one, we would have chosen another one.

“Then I followed him, it was the tactic because it was the only way to improve.

“I would like to be in another level and another position to push in front and have the others follow me like many times in the past.

“But I’m not like this. I know, because I had that feeling in the past, how Maverick is feeling and that’s why I apologised.

“But in the end it’s inside the rules – on the limit, but inside the rules.

“What I did was to try to find the perfect situation to do my 100% and get the best result possible.”

Marquez has struggled all weekend with pain in his right shoulder and even told Spanish press on Friday that pulling out of the Italian GP early was a possibility.

However, he says he needs to finish the race in order to improve his physical situation on the bike, but admits “it’s a mentally hard process”.

“Basically today, overall the feeling was better than yesterday but in the afternoon the power of the arm was less,” he explained.

“And then here it affects a lot on the change of the direction.

“The shoulder is painful, but yesterday maybe it was also maybe a little bit of pain in the arm.

“But today it started in the neck also. It’s like the muscles around the shoulder are working more than normal, and also I’m not fit like with the other arm.

“Then it becomes worse, all the muscles around the shoulder.

“But tomorrow in the race… I was joking with Maverick and I said ‘you will pass me’.

“I know my position and it doesn’t matter if it’s 14th, 10th or eighth – I don’t know what will be the position but I know I need to finish the race, to do some laps and make kilometres.

“It’s a mentally hard process, but we must do it.”