Sepang.- The last time that the Honda rider had ridden the racing Honda was on October 24 last year, when he won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Six days later he suffered a fall while training motocross and for two long months he was fighting against diplopia (double vision) that caused that accident.
Restored from all that, Márquez returned to action this Saturday in the pre-season tests that take place this weekend in Sepang.
“The first day after winter is the worst, but I am very happy to start the normal preseason. I had been practically unemployed for three months. The day was not bad, but we have to see how things evolve. I need more laps to understand things”, the Spanish runner explained.
Marc finished eighth on the time sheet (1.59.287), as the first Honda and 0.9 behind the day’s reference, left by Aleix Espargaró.
“It was a tough first day. I still have a lot of kilometers to go, not to go fast but to recover those sensations and have everything a little more controlled. I’ve made some silly mistakes that I didn’t touch,” said the Catalan, who suffered two crashes, at turns 9 and 15.
Honda has brought to Sepang an evolution of the new bike already tested by the other riders of the brand in Jerez last November.
“We tried the new bike and that added a little more difficulty. It was a good first day and with strange sensations, with some things that I still don’t understand,” referring to the new prototype.
As he said in the Misano tests, in the middle of the season, when Honda first put the primitive prototype of the new bike, the change is evident.
“The 2022 bike is a big change. I’ve been riding the same style of bike for many years and this one is different, but we still need to understand how to get the best out of it. Starting there, having been riding the same style of bike for so long, this is clearly different,” he stressed.
Despite this radical change, Marc was able to finish with a reasonably good time at the end of the day.
“Quickly I have already seen that the times come out easier with the new one. The time per lap comes, but I don’t know why,” the Catalan left open. “At the moment, my strong point, which is at the entrance of the curves, I have to sacrifice. And when I have not done so, I have lost the front end,” he explained the change in style that the new machinery forces him to.
“I have the speed, but by not rolling, you lose the sensations,” he added.
Marc takes these tests as the preseason, but also as part of his rehabilitation.
“Today I told the team that I didn’t want to just try new things, that what I needed was to go around. If I’m ready tomorrow, we’ll try.”
After suffering an episode of diplopia due to a fall while doing motocross, Marc crashed twice on this first day of testing.
“I asked the eye doctor if I could have that same eye problem again if I fell in this training. And he told me that the chances are the same as if I fall in two years. Regarding that nerve, the doctor tells me that that is my weak point: I have strong bones, because with so many falls I have only broken my humerus, but that (the eye) is my weakness”, settled the one from Cervera.
