MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez broke his right upper arm when he crashed in the opening race in Jerez. The Spaniard lost control of his Honda four laps before the race ended on Sunday and was thrown from his motorcycle. The 27-year-old contracted the fracture during the service. Marquez will be operated on in Barcelona on Tuesday, the organizers said.
After a slip in the early stages, the Spaniard fought his way impressively through the field and landed off the track a few laps before the end of the race. The 27-year-old Honda driver had to be brought from the accident site with a stretcher. The first career victory of 21-year-old Frenchman Fabio Quartararo in MotoGP was almost a minor matter. It was the first World Cup race of this year in this class.
He hardly has any recovery time until the second Grand Prix of the year. The first training sessions for the Andalusian Grand Prix are also scheduled for Friday in Jerez. Starting Marquez is therefore extremely unlikely. A waiver would be bitter for the outstanding driver of the past years. Because of the corona virus cancellations, the calendar only includes 13 instead of 20 races. It would be correspondingly difficult for the defending champion to catch up with his pursuers.
Schrötter crashes into Moto2
German Moto2 rider Marcel Schrötter was a little lucky with his fall. After a good start, the race ended much too early for the 27-year-old Bayer. “Unfortunately, the return to racing had an unfortunate ending,” he said. After only seven laps at the Spanish Grand Prix, Schrötter landed in the gravel bed. When he fell in one of the fastest corners, he was unharmed.
Starting from seventh on the grid, the Kalex pilot had worked his way up to fourth position at temperatures of over 30 degrees and fought a tough duel with ex-MotoGP driver Sam Lowes. When the front wheel lost grip when turning into the eleventh curve, Schrötter could no longer keep his motorcycle on the track.
The extreme heat in southern Spain made work extremely difficult for all drivers. With an asphalt temperature of over 50 degrees Celsius, the tires not only reached their limits on Schrötters machines. The Italian Luca Marini won the heat battle in Andalusia on a Kalex. His Japanese brand colleague Tetsuta Nagashima defended the world championship lead with second place. He had won the only race of the year so far on March 8th in Doha in Qatar.
Schrötter was comforted that he quickly got the opportunity to make amends in Jerez. “We’ll have another chance at the Andalusia Grand Prix in a week,” he said. Next weekend, the season will continue on the same course before the World Cup circus travels to Brno in the Czech Republic. Schrötter slipped to 13th position in the World Championship classification. He finished seventh in the first race in Qatar.
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