The speech and way of proceeding of the Spaniard have changed a lot since the wild accident he suffered in the warm up of the second stop on the calendar, in Mandalika, which caused him to lose consciousness, causing his diplopia (vision double) and led him to miss two races (that one and the next, in Argentina).
Since then, #93 has changed and not even he hides it. First, he began to verbalize a new way of approaching racing: “I will risk as much as I feel I have to; no more.” And in the run-up to the French Grand Prix this weekend at Le Mans, he went a little further: “I’ve already understood that I can’t fight for this championship.”
It has been six rounds before the eight-time world champion has come to the conclusion that the title is not a realistic goal when you consider the combination of the performance that this year’s Honda can deliver, and his fitness. Although he prefers to avoid talking about the limitation caused by the consequences of the injury to his right arm and shoulder injured that fateful Sunday in Jerez (2020), the evidence is obvious to anyone.
With all this, the goal that is imposed on the Bugati circuit, as long as the race is held in the dry, is to finish between fifth and seventh place. “Further up would be a gift,” he said this Saturday, after suffering another fall, this one in the last minutes of the fourth free trial.
“Every time it is easier to admit that I am not here to fight for the podium. The hard part is admitting it the first time. When you push too hard and you fall, well you realize it”, declared the boy from Cervera (Lleida), who, despite all the setbacks, will be the best placed Honda rider.
“If the race doesn’t go well I can finish tenth and it wouldn’t be a surprise. It’s not what we want, but it is what it is”, continued the Spaniard, who remains waiting for the brand with the golden wing to revitalize an RC213V that he has a hard time in hot conditions, and on buzzing circuits like the European ones: “We have to wait to see if something comes from Japan, especially to get closer to the first three”.
On the possibility that the rain could alter the natural order of things, the Catalan no longer knows very well what to think. “The rain opens up the range of possibilities, but of everything. Of having a good race, but also of falling”, settled Márquez.
