Jerez.- The Honda rider finished fourth this Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez , his best result of the season, with a save included at the last minute that made us travel back in time to when Marc Márquez made magic saving falls impossible day in and day out. A positive sign, without a doubt, but one that cannot mask the difficulties caused in the brand’s riders by the new 2022 machinery, a motorcycle that, compared to the previous one, has supposedly gained in rear grip, but has become unruly in the front part, where precisely Márquez made the difference with his rivals.
The eight-time world champion has asked Honda for a series of changes to improve that front end and be able to recover his style from before the injury, for which HRC has pulled muscle, making three prototypes available to its star rider in the garage at the start of the test held on the Andalusian track.
Each one of the motorcycles has a different configuration, following the indications of what the rider needs, who apparently discarded one of the motorcycles by mid-morning, since it had been removed from the box and taken to an adjoining garage where there was no activity.
Marc then went out on the track with a third prototype, took a lap and returned to the garage, where the doors were closed after his arrival.
Márquez was out on the track again after one in the afternoon for a new round of laps, having completed 37 laps up to that point with a best time of 1:37.940.
Pol Espargaró, meanwhile, has worked with his two bikes in the Honda garage, completing 46 laps until one in the afternoon, with a best time of 1:37.556. The requests of the #44 to the HRC engineers are not so much about the front end but about getting the rear grip to be the same as they found in preseason, just when the new 2022 prototype was released, both in the test last November in Jerez, as in Malaysia and Indonesia, and also in the first race in Qatar. A grip that, since the Mandalika race, has disappeared.
Photo by: German Garcia NO
Photo by: German Garcia NO
Photo by: German Garcia NO
Photo by: German Garcia NO
