Marc Marquez blames Austrian GP sprint deficit on Michelin’s special rear tyre

Marc Marquez says his lack of speed in the Austrian Grand Prix week is due to a specific rear tyre casing brought by Michelin for the Red Bull Ring. According to Motorsport.com and Yahoo Sports, Marquez has struggled this weekend, failing to fight for pole position or the sprint win on Saturday. He finished second in the sprint race, dropping only three points behind new championship leader Jorge Martin.

Marquez pointed to Michelin's stiffer rear carcass, used at a handful of events, as the reason for his struggles, as reported by Yahoo Sports. The tyre issue had previously affected him in Thailand. In the sprint, Marquez lost the lead to Pedro Acosta on the opening lap and dropped over two seconds to the KTM rider in the first half of the race. He was also passed by Martin with ease on lap 8.

The championship standings, as per Malay Mail and Free Malaysia Today, have Martin and Marquez level on 274 points at the top. However, Marquez holds the advantage with more race wins, having won five of the last seven races. Martin secured pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix, beating Marquez by 0.015 seconds, while Acosta qualified third.

Brief written by urgent.news from Motorsport.com, Yahoo Sports, Malay Mail, Free Malaysia Today — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.