This was the return of Márquez 265 days later

Márque z, who was injured in July of last year and has had surgery on the humerus of his right arm three times, got on the handlebars of a MotoGP bike for the first time after almost nine months, specifically 265 days later.

After starting FP1 of the Portuguese Grand Prix, in somewhat mixed track conditions due to humidity and dry areas on the asphalt, Marc took it easy in the first stages of the session, scheduled for 45 minutes.

Very calmly, the Honda rider began to prepare and put on his helmet 41 minutes from the end of the session, going out on the track for the first time at 10 in the morning local time.

Marc mounted a soft front and medium rear tire, like most of the riders on the track. After a couple of acclimatization laps, the Catalan began to push hard and placed second in the time table, just 61 thousandths behind the first, returning to the garage after completing seven laps with 26 minutes remaining in the session, after being less than 14 minutes on track in his first outing.

Already in the box, the rider gave his first comments to the Honda technicians, and 13 minutes from the end he put on his helmet again, going out on the track, with the same bike and the same tires, with 12:20 to go. . At that time he was 11th on the time sheet, falling to 16th position with seven minutes to go.

In his second session, again seven laps, Marc pushed hard, began to drop his times, placing third (1:44.168) a little over six minutes from the flag, and improving his time until he was first in the standings (1 :43.544) with four and a half minutes remaining.

While the other drivers were improving their times, Marc lowered his time again to 1:42.957 to take third place one minute from the end.

It would still improve that of Honda, getting back to first with the checkered flag lowered and the stopwatch at zero (1:42.378), before being overtaken, first by Alex Rins and, finally, by a Maverick Viñales who led the Portimao FP1 .

Alberto Puig missed Marquez’s comeback

The one who couldn’t be together with Marc Márquez on such a special day as his comeback after nine months off was the HRC Team Manager, the Spaniard Alberto Puig .

The former rider, one of the people who has accompanied Marc the most during all this time, has not been able to travel to Portugal due to health problems, although Puig is expected to be back in the paddock as normal soon.

Santi Hernández , technical chief of Marc’s team, for his part, analyzed this first outing on the track for his driver on television.

“It is logical that there is talk, but the conditions were not the most correct, it has not been fast. The most important thing is the sensations, seeing him smile, we have to stay with that and work little by little to continue with his recovery, as he himself has said, all this is part of his rehabilitation”, he pointed out.

“He has to adapt to the details again, they are difficult things to change after so long, he is adapting and the most important thing is that he is happy, with a smile, that we will start the race and that being here is already a victory” .

“It made more sense to start with the base of Bradl, which is the one we have been working with, there was no point in changing it, we know it works and now we have to adapt it to his riding style”, explained Marc’s track engineer.