Here are the words of Fabio Quartararo and the Marquez brothers at the end of the sprint race of the Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit won by Marc ahead of Alex and Pecco Bagnaia, while the Frenchman fell in an attempt to resist the attack of the elder of the two Spanish brothers.

Fabio Quartararo: “It was a very difficult braking to do, considering that with our riding style the’idea is to get back much further inside, but with Marc there I couldn&#8217t do anything. We were over our heads: I wanted to be the leader to do my race, but I was on the limit. It is easy to talk when you know you have fallen. The pace could be maintained, the podium could be done. Tomorrow will be complicated, the’start will be difficult but we will try to have a good race.”

Marc Marquez: “It was a beautiful podium, where we saw healthy and pure motorcycling with the fans cheering both me and Alex and Bagnaia. I attacked him right away, because I had more than him. I wanted to push at the start as I did in the other Sprints, and then manage in the final. On the first lap I had seen that Fabio wasn&#8217t breaking so hard at Turn 6: that&#8217s when I decided to go for it, preparing to overtake from Turn 3.”

Alex Marquez: “It was not easy today after the bad crash. But the bike is great, the crowd pushed me so much. I knew I had to start well and that’s what happened. Today I tried to be very focused, to get to the finish line. Sunday we will try to fight a little bit more. The grip really changes a lot from morning to afternoon. I didn’t have a good feeling with the soft on the rear and I started very cautiously. This morning with the medium tire I felt better. Pecco and I, unlike Marc, struggle to find the limit. I made a good start today and it will be important to replicate it tomorrow. Everyone took a step forward, while I stayed on the same level as yesterday.”

This is what Matteo Arnaldi said after eliminating Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000: “Novak is my idol, I was already happy to be able to play against him, because it had never happened. Instead I beat him, it&#8217s incredible”.

“To pull it off, I had to play at my best– continued the San Remo-based world number 44 -I knew he is not in a great moment of form so I tried to carry on the exchanges and try to make him miss”.

“Obviously I was very tense at’the beginning, I almost chickened out, also because since I was 9 or 10 years old I started watching his matches – admitted Arnaldi, 24– but then as the match went on I calmed down. I was happy to get the break first, because I knew that sooner or later he would do it to me. Everything was perfect”.

These are the words of Francesco Bagnaia, commenting to Sky Sports his third place in the sprint race of the Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit.

“It was a classic sprint, as is happening a lot. In these races where I start I arrive, it is difficult for me to overtake or at any rate I struggle to find myself in a situation where I can overtake”.

“I start and I always find myself from seven tenths to one second from the rider in front and when I try to get closer I start to have big problems with the front tire”, added the Ducati rider.”

“The same thing happened here – continued Pecco -I started off pretty fast, I left a little bit’ of space for Alex Marquez but when I tried to get closer I started to really risk a lot and at that point I got third”.

The Ducati Corse dg, Gigi Dall’Igna, also confirmed the Piedmontese rider&#8217s problems in short races. “I expected a bit’ more from him however third place is still an important result – he said -. In sprints he always has some difficulties that we will have to work to solve. Tomorrow the race I think will be different, as it often is. He always performs much better on Sundays”.