Still absent, MotoGP world champion Marc Márquez ended up being the star of the second day of the Styrian Grand Prix, the second consecutive round of the Motorcycle World Championship at the Austrian Red Bull Ring. Just under two hours after the end of the official training in the queen class, which had left the news of the first ‘pole’ for Pol Espargaró and for KTM in the category, Repsol Honda released a brief press release with the unexpected confirmation that Márquez will still take a long time to return to the slopes, this when it was assumed that he would be ready to return in the second week of September for the San Marino Grand Prix or, at the latest, for the Emilia Romagna, two events that will be held at the Misano Circuit and that will have a day of training in between, a day that seemed propitious for the Spanish pilot to test himself.
“The world champion and HRC, after studying and contrasting with different specialists the extent of the fracture of the humerus in the right arm that he suffered on July 19 during the Spanish Grand Prix, have decided to modify the planned recovery plan,” he pointed out the letter, which added as a premise for that return that the injury was fully recovered, estimating a period of time of between two and three months. In short, Márquez would miss practically the entire season, unless he decided to try himself at the end of the course to regain his feelings. A fact that already leaves the MotoGP World Championship completely in the hands of those who are currently playing it.
“He is the best driver on the grid and being here without him makes us not know how we are. When you hear something like this, the first thing you want is for him to recover as well as possible and to be here as soon as possible », reflected the author of Saturday’s ‘pole’, in another very even training session: the second, Nakagami, finished 22 thousandths of a the KTM, the third, Zarco, at 52, although the Frenchman will start from the ‘pit lane’ due to the penalty imposed on Friday for the incident with Morbidelli last Sunday; his position will be occupied by Joan Mir.
“We are all quite close together, the Honda and Nakagami are very good both on the pace and on one lap, the Ducati are practically all fast and Dovizioso will be there tomorrow. I think the Suzuki are also clear candidates, both Rins and Mir, so we’ll see, ”Espargaró pointed out about how Styria’s race can be, in a World Cup in which, with the absence of Márquez, a clear dominator is missing. “Yes, it is true that it seemed that we had a little more advantage in the last race, so we have pushed a little more to have the setting already done from the beginning and now everything has been equalized, but the track remains the same for everyone , the same conditions, so we will try to make it a normal race and that nothing happens to finish it.
«Be constant. Consistency is surely the key to all of this, “said Mir, second six days ago and who both Friday and Saturday captured one of the best rhythms on the grid. “There are drivers who can ride in fast times, but then you have to maintain those times. There I think the thing is cleaned of people, there are not so many who can keep the 1.24 low. Maintaining those times is what is going to make some drivers run away and others stay, “he added.
It is a race in which rain could appear as a distorting element and for which Yamaha arrives with doubts, the same ones that it has been dragging in these two weeks, although Maverick Viñales managed to improve his sensations yesterday, on a day in which he will start four positions ahead of leader Fabio Quartararo. «For me the fifth is a good result. This weekend the track is more complicated compared to the past. Tomorrow we have a good rhythm so we have to try to go with the three or four in front. It is very difficult for me to overtake with our motorcycle, so everything happens at the start or because someone goes long in Turn 3 and we pass it, “he acknowledged before facing another day that is expected to be tense and in which the tires will play a fundamental role .
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