MotoGP - Third retirement of Alex Márquez in Jerez: "A disaster"

The LCR Honda team rider added his third retirement due to a fall in four races this year at the Spanish GP, lasting only eight corners. The youngest of the Márquez brothers started 20th on the grid and recovered two positions in the early stages, but a collision with Iker Lecuona before the end of the first lap forced him to retire again. Although he apologized to the Tech 3 runner, he did not hide his immense disappointment.

“A disaster,” summed up Alex Márquez. “Not even one lap, so yes, a disastrous race. I had a good start and made up some positions in the first corners, but then I passed Lecuona in lap 6 and suddenly when I turned and was already in the corner, I felt the impact on the inside and it was him. It’s something that can happen in racing and we can’t control it. I’m sad and angry because, honestly, it was a hard crash, at a lot of speed. But it’s like that”.

Márquez hurt his shoulder in the fall and had to visit the Jerez Circuit Mobile Clinic to see if there was any injury.

“I’ve been through the medical center and everything was fine, just a few bruises on my shoulder and arm, but everything is fine.”

This abandonment joins his difficult start to the season. After suffering five falls during the pre-season tests, Márquez showed up at the Qatar GP with an injury to his right foot and ended up on the ground. The following week he also dropped out in Doha . The man from Lleida leads the ranking of falls in 2021 with five –tied with Aleix Espargaró–, including a violent highside in Portugal .

All these incidents have left him 18th in the championship, but not even that has made a dent in the spirit of the Catalan, who insists on seeing the positive: “Honestly, it’s not easy at all, but you have to analyze the situation and be focused. I think it’s always better to work with positive elements. So for that reason, I’m always positive and I try to see the positive in the negative things.”

“We have to be focused, keep working at home and […] arrive at Le Mans 100% motivated, to fight from the beginning and hope that the situation there changes a bit and that from the first free practice we find ourselves a bit better. So that’s it, we have to be focused and be a real team, all together to see the positive things.”

The post-race test, “important” for Márquez

The #73 was able to regain some of that confidence even before the French GP, thanks to Monday’s test day at Jerez. The 2019 Moto2 champion made progress with the Honda testing various parts, including a new aerodynamic package that could be introduced later in the season.

“It has been an important test for us, to test many things and see the right direction a little better,” he told the official MotoGP website. “We have found a better direction and a better bike, that is the most important thing. Of course, we have not been able to do many laps with the new tires, we have tried many things for Honda.”

“Apart from that, I think we have given good information to the factory and I think they know better where to work. For us it was an important test to get to Le Mans with a better base setup. I would have liked to spend a little more time in the track, honestly, to work on my driving”.

“We tested some important things for the factory. I can’t say specifically what, but what was seen in the pictures was a fairing, a new aero package because we still have the wild card to use this year. We are working on that and many things. There is still a lot to do, to improve. It was a difficult weekend for us and we found a good direction.”

“We have a lot of options in the factory, so I’m using the one I believe in the most. At the end of the day, we’re still working in the same direction, trying to give the factory our information. We all work together. It wasn’t a good day to jump to conclusions.” because the grip level is always very high on Monday [after the race], everyone is very fast, so as I said, we have improved the bike a bit, we are happy and working well for the future, but there is still a lot to do.”

With information from Chloé Millois