There was no home race joy for Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Álex Márquez and Joan Mir in today’s Spanish Grand Prix.

The capacity crowd at Jerez in Southern Spain had little to cheer about with Álex Márquez failing to finish and Joan Mir finishing in 11th place.

Márquez crashed out of third on lap 10 when he lost the front-end at turn two. At the time Márquez was in a close battle with eventual race winner Lorenzo Baldassarri and Miguel Oliveira who was second.

For Mir the race was a huge physical challenge with the young Spaniard weakened by a stomach illness, which he began to suffer before qualifying on Saturday.

Mir started from sixth on the grid and made a strong start to hold fifth for a couple of laps before fading with his physical condition. Mir’s brave performance delivered five valuable points in the world championship.

The next race is the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in two weeks.

Joan Mir: 11th
“I felt worse today with my illness than yesterday, my physical condition is not very good and I didn’t have very good feeling with my bike. It was a difficult weekend but this is racing. At the Mugello test I hope we can improve the turning and rear grip and be stronger for the next race in Le Mans.”

Álex Márquez: DNF 
“I knew from the warm-up that I would be on the limit today and I tried my best to challenge for the podium. I was missing some rear grip and I did not have a good feeling from the second lap. I made a small mistake at turn two so I am sorry for the team. We have a test coming up in Mugello so we need to focus on a solution and the next race in Le Mans.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“This is a disappointing day because Alex had good speed the whole weekend and he was fast with the race tyre in practice on Friday. I thought the podium was possible for Alex but the crash finished his race. For Joan I am happy he scored some points given that he had an illness and was in a weak physical condition. Hopefully the next race in Le Mans will deliver better results.”