Alex Marquez to attempt MotoGP return at Brno
Alex Marquez will attempt to return to MotoGP action at this weekend’s Czech Grand Prix, a month after his horrific Barcelona crash.
The Gresini rider suffered neck and collarbone injuries when he clipped Pedro Acosta’s suddenly-slowing KTM at high speed on Barcelona’s back straight.
Marquez had surgery on the clavicle element of his injuries soon afterwards.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro stood in for him at Mugello and its works World Superbike rider Iker Lecuona then came in for Balaton and starred with seventh in the grand prix in his first MotoGP appearance in three years.
Marquez will need to pass medical checks at Brno on Thursday before he can be cleared to race, but Gresini said he was travelling to the track “with the aim of being declared fit”.
His brother Marc revealed at Mugello, the round after Alex’s crash, that the first days after the injury had been extremely hard. Marc had missed Barcelona while recovering from his own injury and surgery.
"The first week for Alex was tough. It was tough. I picked him up at the airport on Monday, arriving in his house and [once I left] after two hours his girlfriend called me, [saying] 'please, your brother is [doing] super bad, we need to do something,’” Marc recalled.
"Then he went again to the hospital and stayed there for two days. It was bad.
"But after seeing the image [of the crash] from home, I was like ice [frozen], I was watching the situation - and we know the risk we have, it's always there, but when it happens to some of your family or some riders that are very close to you, the impact is even more.
"So, yes, all Sunday I was suffering a lot, honestly speaking, because I know that with this kind of crash, sometimes the [real] damage arrives later.”
