Marc Márquez returns in style in the first practice sessions of the Portuguese GP

As if nothing had happened, nine months later Marc Márquez got back on the Honda in the first practice sessions of the Portimao MotoGP Grand Prix. The Spanish rider came back in a big way with a third place. Marc Márquez, absent from the circuits due to injury for nine months, overcame the difficult track conditions, with many wet spots and set a time of 1 min 42 sec 378 thousandths, which placed him 251 thousandths behind the leader, his compatriot Maverick Viñales (Yamaha). Márquez, who fractured his right humerus in a fall in the first GP of 2020, last July, had to undergo surgery three times, the last in December. He already tried to return, unsuccessfully, a week after his accident, after a first operation, which on Thursday he admitted at a press conference that “it was a mistake.” Later, the plate to consolidate his fracture broke and he had to be operated on. again. For this return to the tracks, the 28-year-old pilot has been cautious. After some private practice in mid-March in Barcelona and Portimao, he listened to his doctors and missed the first two races of the 2021 season in Qatar, to return to a circuit where he has never raced in MotoGP. More than 500 days later After finishing his last race (in Valencia in 2019) and 265 days after his last laps in the world championship, the Honda rider claimed on Thursday to run “without aim. The goal is to ride a motorcycle again. »Spaniard Álex Rins (Suzuki) was second between Viñales and Márquez, 151 thousandths behind the first. Pol Espargaró (Honda) and the French Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac), leader of the championship, complete the top 5 at 255 and 316 thousandths respectively.