Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez had a very difficult weekend at the US MotoGP in Austin, Texas. At the track where he has won many times before, he could only finish fifth in the main race on Sunday.

Marquez made a mistake in the Sprint race on Saturday while fighting with Fabio di Giannantonio. This error meant he scored no points in the Sprint race. It also gave him a long-lap penalty in Sunday’s big race. Marquez said it was a “very expensive price” to pay.

The weekend started badly for him. In the first practice session, he had a very fast fall at 190 km/h. Despite this, he continued to race, but the early laps were difficult. Marquez explained that when the tyres are new, he is “not ready to ride the bike” and cannot feel comfortable. He even made a small mistake in the first corner on Sunday.

The penalty made it even harder to fight for the top positions. He went out in the middle of the group and had to pass many riders to move forward. At one point, he was down in eleventh place before he could start climbing up the order. He gradually overtook riders like his brother Alex Marquez, Enea Bastianini, and eventually his teammate Francesco Bagnaia.

Even with the penalty, Marquez’s speed was very good. His fastest lap was only 0.096 seconds slower than the best lap of the race. However, he could only set it on lap 12 of 20, while the winner, Marco Bezzecchi, had already set the fastest lap on lap 6. Marquez finished 8.1 seconds behind Bezzecchi.

Marquez admitted that without the penalty, he might have been able to fight for the podium, but it would still have been very difficult. This season has been challenging for him. So far, he has won only one Sprint race out of six, and his best main race result is fourth in Brazil. He also had a technical retirement in the Thai Grand Prix.

After this weekend, Marquez will start the next race in Spain 36 points behind Bezzecchi, who has won all three main races this season. The Spaniard said he tried his best, learned some things during the race, but finishing fifth was the best result he could achieve this weekend.