Jerez.- The rider from Cervera (Lleida) has marked the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend in Jerez with an X. Not so much the test itself, but above all the collective rehearsal on Monday, in which Honda hopes to find some solution to the lack of competitiveness exhibited in recent appointments by the renewed version of its RC213V.
Marc Márquez had declared in the preview that he would use this Friday to start testing things, in order to gain time. However, two crashes almost in a row with 20 minutes remaining in the afternoon session put an end to all that planning.
The accidents were more inconvenient than harmful, since they occurred at low speeds. Both on the same lap and only three corners apart.
“We took a risk by starting to test things, and that’s why I had two different bikes in the afternoon. Unfortunately, with the bike that felt good I crashed, and I couldn’t continue. With the other one, I didn’t feel good at all. I’m away [from the front],” said Márquez, who finished more than a second behind Fabio Quartararo, the fastest.
If his situation in the championship is far from the best – he occupies 11th place in the table, 38 points behind the leadership shared by Quartararo and Alex Rins – that of the manufacturer that pays him is even worse: Honda is the last classified in among the six that are measured in the contest.
Asked if his position is real or if there is room for improvement, the Catalan agreed that he believes he is capable of fighting to get into the second qualifying round this Saturday, but not much further either: “I don’t think I’m 20th, but being out of the top ten is quite real”.
Apart from the lack of solidity of the Honda, one of the aspects that most conditions the multi-champion is his right arm, “different from the one he had before the injury”, the one he suffered here, in Jerez, in July 2020, and which was the starting point of the ordeal through which he still travels. To that limitation must be added, from the chilling costalazo in Mandalika , with a lack of confidence that becomes very evident in certain circumstances. On tracks where he looks strong, like Austin, he’s still capable of making a difference. In others that are worse, like Portimão, he suffers as he did last Sunday – he finished sixth, 16 seconds behind the winner.
Somehow, Márquez still carries the psychological consequences of that fall in Mandalika: “Since the accident, I do what I think I have to do, no more.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
