Marc Marquez had admitted that he’s going into this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix aiming only to complete the next step in his rehabilitation rather than to challenge for results, as he continues to recover from the career-threatening injuries he suffered at the start of the 2020 season over nine months ago.
Shattering his upper right arm in a fall during the first race and making the injury exponentially worse by attempting to race again only five days after surgery to install a titanium plate to the bone, Marquez hasn’t sat on a MotoGP bike since then, instead needing repeated operations and extensive hospitalisation.
Finally cleared to ride again last month and able to complete three days of testing on the road-going derivative of his Repsol Honda MotoGP machine, including at this weekend’s venue in Portimao, Marquez has been on a month-long hiatus since that first attempt to ride at the orders of his doctors.
Such was the severity of the injuries and the extent of his recovery that even the eight-time world champion admitted that he’s nervous about what will happen tomorrow when he finally returns to action.
“It’s really nice to be back, because it was nine really hard and difficult months,” he said. “Tomorrow will be time to make the most important step in my rehabilitation and to ride a MotoGP bike again. And it’s true that I’m nervous – I have some butterflies in my stomach that aren’t normal for me.
“But I know that after FP1 they’ll be gone, and that means it’s time to enjoy being back on the bike again.”
Marquez conceded that there were some dark times during his recovery – which left him not only worried that he might never race again but that he might be left with permanent damage.
“It was nine very hard months, not just because of the doubt of whether I’d ever ride again, but even the doubt of whether I would have a normal arm. It was hard. I was always optimistic, which was a key point, and the people around me and the target of being able to ride a bike again helped me.”
And while the most asked question in motorcycle racing right now might be about how he’s expecting to feel after the first laps back among the dog-eat-dog world of MotoGP, Marquez says he isn’t even thinking about what his performance level will be, concentrating instead on more important priorities.
“Honestly, the main target is to feel well on the bike,” he said. “That’s why I’m here. There’s a question mark for me and my team about how my body will react, about how I will feel on the bike, and of course I don’t know. I would like to feel more ready, and the best situation would be to have a private test tomorrow – but we don’t have that opportunity.
“The doctors and I feel that I am ready to ride the bike again. We had a long meeting, and when the decision was unanimous then it was time to go. In Qatar, the decision was already more yes than no, but it wasn’t unanimous so we said no. Here it was unanimous, and that’s the main reason that I’m here.”
Instead, the race weekend at Portimao marks not a chance to get stuck in fully but rather an opportunity to assess his level, and to understand what the next steps need to be to allow him to make a full return to competitiveness.
“I feel ready to ride the bike, but of course I would like to feel different,” Marquez said when asked by The Race. “The last nine months I’ve rode for three days, and in the last month I haven’t rode at all. It’s true that it’ll be difficult, and I have question marks in my mind about the reaction of my body.
“But it’s a step in my rehabilitation that we believe is the correct one to take at this time. We’re still in my rehabilitation though, and I don’t think that I’ll feel strong enough on the bike.
“It’s the best category in the world, they’ve had a normal pre-season and two races in a row, and they have high confidence. I’m not in the same position.”
Marquez, who was replaced by Stefan Bradl during his time out, said he will start with “Bradl’s bike” rather than the Honda he’d left behind. He also described the Portimao weekend as “my pre-season”.
And with that slow step to return to action, Marquez also adamant that he can’t set goals for the race – not just because he doesn’t know his own level, but also because he doesn’t know how MotoGP has changed during his absence.
“I don’t have any targets this weekend,” the 28-year-old said. “I just want to ride. We’ll have time to put myself under pressure to achieve results but now I’m just riding.
“I expect to find a tough category, because everyone says that it’s changing, there are no more satellite bikes, only factory bikes like we can see with [Johann] Zarco leading the championship and with Morbidelli last year.
“It’s impossible to understand the situation from the TV, because there are so many ups and downs not just from one weekend to the next but from one day to another. It’s the best category in the world, and I’m coming back from a big injury. I don’t know how long that will take.”
