The Gresini Ducati rider endured a tricky qualifying which noticed him knocked out in Q1, although he recovered brilliantly within the dash to complete second.
Marquez did the identical once more on Sunday, although took 17 laps to get into the rostrum locations earlier than closing down a two-second hole to catch eventual winner Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia.
After securing second with a last-lap overtake on Bagnaia, Marquez admitted afterwards that he was uncertain whether or not he may battle for the win as soon as he reached the leaders.
“I used to be not satisfied as a result of once I arrived to them, I used to be utterly exhausted,” Marquez mentioned having scored a second grand prix podium with Gresini on the staff’s one thousandth GP.
“I used to be pushing all of the race, no time to calm down, after which I arrived to them and I attempted to assault.
“However then I mentioned ‘hmm, I’m not feeling nicely now on the bike’ and I noticed additionally Pecco had good acceleration. So, it was tough to seek out the purpose to overhaul as a result of he was additionally defending nicely on Flip 3.
“However on that final lap, I mentioned ‘I will likely be there to see if one thing occurs’.
“I noticed Pecco was not attacking Martin, so I am going out nicely from that Flip 8 and in Flip 9 I attempted. I used to be capable of cease nicely.”
Marquez believes he would have stood a greater likelihood at profitable the French GP had he not obtained caught up in a “unusual” battle for third with VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio.
“That battle on these laps was unusual as a result of you could perceive typically which a part of the race you might be, and if some rider is coming from the again you can’t lose two seconds there as a result of we misplaced 1.5s in that chicane with a contact; I had the place already,” he added.
“However I overlook [this battle afterwards] and I stored going, and we did an incredible tempo.
“It’s true that with out that battle I had extra likelihood as a result of I’d have extra laps behind them. However that second place, in the present day, was greater than higher.”