Marc Marquez looked back to his pre-injury best at COTA on Sunday, dominating from the off to take the MotoGP victory by a near five-second margin.

Despite failing to take the pole on Saturday, thus losing his consecutive run record since the track’s addition to the World Championship calendar, the Repsol Honda rider actually heralds this as pivotal to his race day success.

“The key point of this weekend was yesterday,” he said after the race. “I feel not so good. The speed was there but the feeling was not good, with the track, with the bike, and I didn't push.  Because if you don't feel well and you push, then you are using a lot the force, the muscles and your physical condition. Yesterday I push only single laps and today in the warmup is where I feel better and then I was pushing more. So, the key point was yesterday. Keep calm, save energy and today show and give everything!

“Was a great Sunday,” he continued. “Starting from the warm up the feeling was good. Basically, my plan A was leading the race from the first lap and was there. Perfect start, especially in the first corner. I was braking deep and hard and tried to control the race the first three/four laps, and then one shot, push from 5.0, four-high, I go to four-low and there is where I feel very strong.

“My intention was try to open a gap and it's what I did. Because on those laps I feel very good with the bike. The last part of the race, I didn't know how will be my physical condition but I think everybody struggle a lot this race. So yeah, the gap that I opened with Fabio was enough to manage and to ride very constant and very smooth.”

Despite looking so from the outside, his command of the 20-lap contest was far from perfect, the Catalan explained.

“Was some mistakes on the race,” Marquez admitted. “Especially three laps to go - I nearly crash on turn six! I hit there the curb inside and I lose the front, but it's true that I was so concentrating. The fact that I push hard only three/four laps but then when I see that the distance was there, the gap was increasing, then I was able to ride in 4.8, four-high in a constant pace because was some margin.

“I had the margin to be a little bit faster, but I was riding really good and was my intention. Was the first race that I come here with the intention of fight for the victory, and I say already on the press conference on Thursday. The weekend was good, Friday was really good, Saturday so-so, but today, better.”

Austin is a track that is synonymous with the Repsol rider, after taking seven victories from eight attempts, with an equal record in qualifying. Despite his ongoing recovery, Marquez was seen as the man to beat and the man who would triumph in Texas, coming in to this weekend, so how does he handle the expectation against the unknowns.

“Of course, you feel the pressure but, this season for me is really strange and hard season,” he explained. “I never feel some kind of feelings in my career and this season is a really tough. Sometimes I crash and don't understand. Sometimes I'm fast, I don't understand, sometimes I'm slow and I don't understand. But step by step, looks like these races, I'm able to ride in a better way and I'm able to manage the situation in a better way. But it's still far. I need to keep working, keep pushing because it's still far. The feeling, you know that special feeling is still is not there with the bike.

“In the left circuit corners, always has been my one of my strong points. But now, with the injuries even bigger the difference, or the feeling in left corners and right corners. Is easy to explain, on the left corners I can turn and I can push with the left arm, and use the triceps and turning in a good way, but in the right corner just I push with the left and then just I have understeering. Is something that when I tried to push with the right hand, I can't at the moment but I'm able to ride well.

“It's true that the riding like this is difficult, for that reason I crashed many times, about the front and I cannot save with the elbow, but we are working on it and we are trying to understand well. It's true that there remains three races, Misano will be difficult, because everybody will ride too fast. The previous race, test, and everybody will be too fast and there I will pass the race. But then last two races will be also interesting for me to understand where I am in the right corners, especially in Portimao.”

His consistency across the weekend was one of note, but one the Honda man says is just in his character.

“I'm a rider that normally if I can do a lap time in a practice, I can repeat in a race. It's true that sometimes you go out and the feeling is not the same and then you struggle more but my pace was the one that I show on the practice - that four-middle in the beginning with a new tyre, and four-high then with a used tyre.

“The last five laps I slow down because the gap was big but just I ride, the feeling was great and I ride like in the practice. Especially I know if Fabio try to push, I know the points where I was able to take more risk, that especially was turns two, three, four, but the riding like this I was able to be comfortable. Also turn four yesterday checking the videos I saw Pecco, and I copy his line, and this helps a lot. I said 'what he's doing?' and he was cutting the curbs. The time was more or less similar but less force and this helps me a lot.”

The only blot on the Spaniard’s COTA copybook came in 2019, when he crashed out of the lead. A situation that remained in the back of his mind throughout the vast 5.5km layout, this time round.

“It’s a brake point that always you try more and more and more,” he said of the technical track’s turn 12. “Sometimes I was too deep on the brakes and then immediately ’19 was here [on my mind], and then I was releasing the brakes and don't force and I was going wide. But it's true that that mistake was here, especially in turn 11 and 12. I was very careful and always I try to be constant and don't force too much because it's easy to lose the front there.”