MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez described this weekend as one of the best of his career, after winning his first race of 2019 by 9.8 seconds around the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit.

The factory Repsol Honda man got the perfect start from pole position and very quickly rode off into the distance. The lead was as large as 12 seconds at one point, before the Spaniard backed off to bring his RC213V home safely.

With no crashes and then the pole and a dominant race win, Marquez described this weekend as one of the best of his MotoGP career.

“I’m happy because we won and we’re leading the championship, but I am happy with how we managed the weekend,” said the 26-year-old.

“It was one of the most solid weekends in my career in MotoGP. I feel really strong during all the sessions, I understand really well the set up, the tyres and I understand the way to mange the race.

“I understand the first laps were where I could make the biggest difference and this was the strategy. The start was perfect, I was so concentrated, I was pushing on the beginning since I saw the gap, then I tried to manage the race and tried to finish in a good way.”

In recent races, many have said that the Michelin tyres prevent riders from going all out from the start, with a period of tyre management required. Marquez explained that he knew his strength was with the new tyres, so elected to take advantage of this and then manage the tyres at the end.

“Plan A which was a good start and pushing from the beginning,” explained Marquez. “Plan B was for not such a good start, as you never know with Ducati and their hole shot system, so I was thinking if they start first I will save the tyres in the beginning and push at the end.

“But then I saw in the first lap I was up 0.7, maybe a little bit more and then I just kept pushing, especially in the beginning is where I made the biggest difference because at the end I wasn’t pushing 100% because I was trying to manage the risk.”