Sepang.- In the Sepang test a true perfect storm has gathered for Marc Márquez, who was back on a MotoGP for the first time since October 24 last year, he did it with a completely new bike and, to finish Dress it up, with the uncertainty of knowing if his right shoulder, injured in July 2020 and which kept him unemployed for a year, was going to respond.
The conclusion is that things are on the right track and the only thing the Spanish Honda rider needs is to get fitter riding the RC213V.
“I am happy because I was able to accumulate laps with the new bike, and I have begun to understand it better. Despite that, my physical condition still does not follow me for what I want to do. Luckily it started to rain, because I was dead. The best thing about this bike is that when you push, time comes”, the boy from Cervera summed up his feelings this Sunday after the Sepang test.
With all these conditions, Márquez was eighth on the time sheet (1.58.332) just 0.201 behind the reference, Enea Bastianini, who lapped below the track record.
“We have to ride more. We start to test new important things. I need more laps to understand what I need. But Pol was fast; my brother, too. It is true that they are only tests, but we are there,” he said.
Marc explained that the new RC231V has changed its character and that prevents him from taking advantage of some of the characteristics of his riding that make him go fast.
“It’s true that this bike is very different and that I can’t make the most of that strong point that was the entry into the corner. Now we have to do the time at the exit of the corners”.
“At the moment I am adapting to the bike, and when I am physically better, then I will get those last tenths by making it mine,” he warned.
A process in which he is still immersed and that he must complete before the start of the season in Qatar, in a month.
“On a physical level, with the passing of the hours and the accumulation of fatigue, I was slower and slower, to the point of telling the team to stop”, just when it started to rain three hours from the end of the day.
Once the diplopia he suffered on October 30 while training doing motocross has been successfully overcome, the only question is whether the shoulder injury at Jerez 2020 can be settled.
“The good thing is that the shoulder is fine. These two days are the best possible training, and now there are three more days of testing,” he settled in reference to the tests in Mandalika next week.
