until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Marc Marquez had hoped MotoGP’s summer break would help his injury recovery and feeling on his Honda bike, but has been left frustrated after practice ahead of this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix.
Marquez is still recovering from the crash at the 2020 season-opener at Jerez that put him out for the rest of that year and forced him to miss the first two races of the 2021 season.
The injuries he sustained from the crash, in particular his weakened right shoulder, are still hampering his 2021 campaign.
He had hoped that the five-week summer break between July’s Dutch TT and this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix would allow a chance for his shoulder to further recover.
But the 28-year-old didn’t enjoy the first of two practice sessions in Austria on Friday and while the unrepresentative damp FP2 nullified his woes, he struggled in the dry FP1.
“This afternoon I felt OK in the wet,” Marquez said. “But his morning I was not happy. I expect much better.
“After the summer break I expected that I would be able to ride the bike in a good way, but from the beginning I started, I feel not so good.
“When you expect something will come better and it’s not there, the psychological side is frustrating.
“But it’s my situation. So will just try to work, I already changed some things on the bike to find a way, and I hope that during the weekend it will be better but during FP1 the feeling was not the best one.
“Even like this, I was fast, and the level was acceptable, but it’s not the one that I want.”
Marquez was sixth fastest in FP1, just under seven tenths slower than surprise pacesetter Takaaki Nakagami – riding the satellite LCR Honda.
Despite missing the first two races, Marquez is currently 10th in the riders’ championship, having taken his first win since his comeback at the Sachsenring and scored three other top 10 finishes alongside three successive falls.
No Honda rider has won at the Red Bull Ring since the Austrian circuit returned to the calendar in 2016, with Ducati sweeping all but one of the six races held here in the last five years.
Marquez’s Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro is yet to finish higher than eighth this year, but he insisted he had a good feeling during the two practice sessions after finishing fifth in FP1.
“The bike feels quite good, you don’t need to risk hugely to get the lap time, at least today,” Espargaro said.
“We are far from the lap times, but it was not too bad. Everything feels quite comfortable, feels pretty good. I’m happy with the result.”
