Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez will sit out the Termas de Rio Hondo race despite “very favourable improvements” in his current diplopia diagnosis.
His Honda team announced on Wednesday that test rider Stefan Bradl, who stood in for Marquez on multiple occasions in 2020 and 2021, had been called up to ride its second bike in Argentina.
Marquez is experiencing his latest bout of double vision following a violent crash in warm-up at Mandalika that also left the Spaniard concussed.
It is the third diplopia case of his career, following the 2011 incidence while he was a Moto2 rider and the re-occurrence as a result of a training crash late last year.
A Monday visit to Marquez’s opthalmologist Dr. Bernardo Sanchez Dalmau has led to the decision being taken for him to miss this weekend’s Argentina round, while a timeline for recovery remains unclear.
Despite this, Honda says that “the progression of his [Marquez’s] vision is very favourable”, which is in line with the previous assertion that this bout of diplopia is not as serious as the previous two occasions.
“The second neuro-ophthalmological evaluation carried out on Marc Marquez this past Monday has shown a very favourable evolution in the paralysis of the fourth right nerve affected by the fall that occurred at the Indonesian Grand Prix,” Dr Sanchez Dalmau is quoted as saying.
“Recovery is not yet complete, and Marc Marquez must follow the established therapeutic regime with conservative treatment.”
A “conservative” approach suggests Marquez will be quite likely to miss the following weekend’s COTA round either, which would mark a significant blow to his 2022 campaign given that Termas and particularly COTA are two tracks where he has really excelled over his career.
