Six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez has poured cold water on talk of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix being the race where he’ll return to winning ways after a year-long absence from the top step of the podium.
He’s stressed that despite very much looking like his old self again on the Repsol Honda at Phillip Island, there’s still a long way to go until he recovers fully from his latest extensive surgery and that he’s going to have to ask too much of the bike and himself over the race distance to focus on the tyre management required.
Constantly managing injuries since breaking his right upper arm during the opening round of the 2020 championship at Jerez in July of that year, he once again went under the surgeon’s knife in May to have the humerus bone broken and reset straight, in an attempt to not just allow him to race competitively again but to remove the constant pain he had been living in.
He returned at the Misano test last month and first raced again at home at Aragon, which ended in disaster when contact with Fabio Quartararo caused technical problems with his bike.
However, finishing fourth and fifth at Motegi and Buriram in the weeks after, he’s been building up strongly – and with a front row starting position for Sunday (albeit with help from a tow) and strong practice times, Phillip Island has looked like another step forward.
But, with one-lap pace coming easier than race pace for him so far, Marquez says it’s not right to get too excited yet, even as factory Ducati rider Jack Miller singled out Marquez’s experience as one of his strongest cards against fellow front row starters Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia in what is likely to be a race of tyre preservation.
“Of course, tyre management will be important, but Pecco also has good experience and Jorge understands the class really well,” said Marquez.
“Everyone knows, and especially if you have a fast bike on the straights it’s easier to manage the tyre.
“I’m at this point, this moment, where I’m not able to manage the tyre.
“My target is to try and start [competitively], and if I have to try and use the rear tyre to be there I will. Then we’ll see in the end.
“It’s true that it’s the race where I feel closer to the top guys, but I’m not the fastest one.
“If you’re not the fastest guy, then you can’t manage the tyre, you just have to give everything to stay with them.”
No longer in constant pain since the last operation at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, he’s also more able to start acting like himself both on and off the bike.
Regularly conceding that the full impact of the four operations on the muscles and ligaments of his arm (never mind the broken bone) still needs to fully reveal itself to him, he’s also honest about having a better quality of life and about being on the right road – even if it’s a road with a few setbacks expected.
“Of course after the operation, after the fourth operation, I already felt better,” he said.
“It’s true that in the end what the doctors said to me right away was that an arm with four surgeries would not be perfect, but after the fourth surgery I was able to start training in a normal way, not doing any special exercises.
“This winter will be important to make the final step.
“It’s true that this is a special circuit, and that in Malaysia things will be a bit more normal again.
“But the most important thing is that from the Misano test until now, all the improvement is in a positive way. This is the main target, and it was the target when I decided to come back.”
That slow improvement to previous form was very much on display in qualifying, with a dramatic save at Turn 10 that for all the world looked like the work of pre-crash Marc Marquez and very much mirrored a similar incident the last time the series visited Phillip Island in 2019.
A MASSIVE throwback for @marcmarquez93, who replicated his infamous 2019 save 🤯🔥
The lean angle might be slightly different this year, but that front tyre was still pointing towards Tasmania! 😂
#AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/fBsoHBChyL
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 15, 2022
He admitted that moment was yet another sign that things are coming together well for him.
“I was coming fast on that lap,” Marquez explained, “and I went into Turn 10 fast.
“Already I could see that Pecco had a lot of lean angle and at the last minute I just tried to push the front a bit more to finish the turn.
“It was exactly the same moment as 2019, but the good thing is that the arm, the body, everything reacted in a good way and it was exactly the same movement.
“It’s not the best signal because it means we’re at the limit, but it was nice for people.”
And with all of that in mind, he’s insistent that the only thing to be done about his and Honda’s situation right now is to keep doing what he’s doing, keep getting faster bit by bit – and to see what happens at the end of Sunday’s 27-lap duel.
“We will see,” he said. “Still, there’s work to do. It’s true that step by step I feel better, but there are still ups and downs and this is something that makes you confused.
“After Thailand, there was a down – it took a lot of time to recover. But now I’ve arrived here fresh, and it’s good.
“The target is to try and fight with the top guys. It doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter which riding style, it doesn’t matter which way, it just matters that we can.”
