MotoGP - Márquez: "I don't see any Honda rider close to winning"

Honda has not won a MotoGP race since Marc Márquez ‘s victory in the 2019 Valencia Grand Prix, 544 days ago, almost a year and a half, and as the rider himself admitted this Friday, he does not see, right now, any Honda rider. the brand managing to end that bad streak in the short term.

“Hopefully that bad streak can be broken by me. Last year my brother Alex was close to winning in Aragon and in the race here (France). For Pol (Espargaró) Le Mans is a circuit that he is good at, he will go fast; Nakagami was also fast in Jerez”, Marc introduced.

“But honestly I don’t see any Honda rider close to victory. The first objective must be to get a podium and, above all, to put more riders in the top 5 or 8. But I fully trust, and I am sure, that between now and the end of the year there will be a victory for Honda”, admitted Márquez , who He finished the day with the 8th fastest time of the day.

The Honda rider is still in his recovery process and the intense cold of Le Mans does not benefit him at all physically, forcing him to remain cautious.

“Now it comes naturally to me to be cautious because I also don’t have the feeling of going out and going fast all at once. Normally, before I was able to go fast without having the situation under control, but now I have to be smooth and make sure the bike doesn’t make any strange movements so I don’t get tired. My instinct to take risks comes out of me, but within the team they make me very aware, they point out to me a lot that we are in our situation, that it is not our championship , that we are in a particular situation. Nothing is ruled out, but we know where we come from, where we are going and where we want to go”.

In his current situation, a race in the wet and with a little mess could end up giving an advantage to a driver who has always moved well in strange situations.

“On the one hand I think about recovery and I’m interested in a normal weekend adding up kilometres, but on the other hand my other self makes me think about getting the best result and that on a rainy and messy weekend can be good, or Bad if the one who falls is you. Right now I don’t dislike the rain, and that means I’m out of shape. When it rains and a rider says that nothing is wrong, it is because he is not in shape, because when you are in good shape you always want a dry race”.

Márquez does not set deadlines and maintains his roadmap in recovering from an injury that kept him out of action for nine months.

“Regarding Portimao , in Jerez I noticed a bigger change of sensations. Here, the change today has not been so much, but it is related to the layout. Here there is very strong braking, in Jerez too, but there the changes of direction are smoother. Here, the whole part of the end of the straight and the last part has changes of direction with great force. I have felt a little more limited. We have ridden little in the dry, in the wet I have felt better because you make less force. We know, and we already said it in Jerez , that I’m not at my best here, that I won’t be at Mugello or Barcelona either, it’s time, it depends on how the inconvenience goes, we’re trying to manage it in the best way”.

One of the news of the day was the suspension of the Finnish Grand Prix that was to be held on July 11, and the entry of a second race in Austria , which will be on August 8, a time that Marc wins to recover.

“In recovery key we live day by day, we don’t know when we will be fine, we are improving. Here, due to the humidity and the cold, I have more discomfort in my arm in general, the body has to adapt and the doctor has told me that it is completely normal”.

“Regarding running two races in Austria , I am a driver who does not like to repeat circuits, it is not good for a World Championship , but the circumstances are like that and if grand prix can be saved, it is fine. In terms of recovery, if the race is done later it is better for me, I will have more time to do the gym and recover”, settled the one from Cervera .