The Honda rider had not achieved pole position since the Japanese Grand Prix held in October 2019, 1071 days ago this Saturday, but Marc Márquez, the best in difficult conditions and looking to benefit from the chaos, brought out all his genius on the sodden track Japanese to fly towards his 63rd pole position in the queen class, the one he has the most in history despite having spent practically three years without achieving any.
In the morning, in FP2, also played in the rain, the Honda rider was already the fastest, leading the session, a dress rehearsal to attack in the classification. Márquez had already managed, on Friday, to place himself among the top ten in dry conditions, which earned him a direct pass to Q2 when the rain appeared this Saturday and he did not improve his FP1 times.
In the final session, the Spaniard took first place in his initial lap, and although he had a tough fight, especially with Johann Zarco, in the end he made use of his best lap to get pole position, so he will start first in the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix MotoGP race.
“The last pole position was here three years ago, it has been a very long wait,” fit an exultant Márquez to the DAZN microphones in the parc fermé after Q2
Although the Honda rider is in the process of recovering from the fourth operation on his right arm, in wet conditions his lack of strength has not been an impediment.
“I had to take advantage of it, I feel comfortable in the water, I lack arm strength in dry conditions, but in the wet I can drive as I want, and I have taken advantage of it,” he explained.
Marc, slightly moved, wanted to remember all those who are helping him recover from his injury.
“I want to thank all the people who have helped me in the recovery, I know we have done the pole in the water, but, in my condition and after everything we’ve been through, everything has to be celebrated,” he said.
The forecasts indicate that the race will be this Sunday (8 in the morning Spanish time) in the dry, which will complicate things for the Catalan.
“Tomorrow the race will be dry and we’ll see what happens, but we have to look for incentives to keep going”, settled the boy from Cervera.
