Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez will miss Sunday’s Dutch TT at Assen, after being declared unfit to ride by the MotoGP medical team.
Marquez was deemed to have aggravated the injuries he sustained at last weekend’s German Grand Prix during the Saturday sprint race at Assen, where he finished a distant 17th.
The decision came on Sunday morning, announced in a statement by his team.
“I woke up this morning with a lot of pain and, after a check-up, we have decided together with the medical team not to race today to prevent it from getting worse and be able to recover the following weeks,” Marquez explained on social media.
Marquez had crashed five times during the weekend at the Sachsenring, with the final and most punishing of those coming in Sunday morning’s warm-up, leaving him with a broken rib that he admitted was causing him severe discomfort while on the bike at Assen.
He then aggravated the situation with two further crashes, one of them almost entirely avoidable and coming when a distracted Marquez rode into the back of factory Ducati rival Enea Bastianini while hunting for a tow.
That added up to seven crashes in 12 sessions across Sachsenring and Assen.
An early end to their Q2 hopes! ⚔️@marcmarquez93 and @Bestia23 clashed while looking to slot back in and go for a fast lap! 💥#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/QREpI5HA3j
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 24, 2023
It means that the only Repsol Honda rider on the grid for the main Assen race will be stand-in racer Iker Lecuona, on replacement duty for Marquez’s team-mate Joan Mir, who suffered a broken finger in his own crash at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Marquez also joins fellow Honda rider Alex Rins on the injury list, with the LCR satellite rider sustaining a badly broken leg at Mugello which has put him onto the series’ long-term injury list as he undergoes multiple surgeries.
The cancellation of the Kazakhstan race means chequered flag at Assen will mark the start of an extended summer break – and Marquez will enter said summer break with just 15 points to his name, every single one scored in sprint races.
