Marc Márquez celebrates the pole achieved in Japan. /
Japanese GP
The Catalan’s performance in Japan shows that his full recovery is getting closer and closer and that the decision to have surgery on his arm for the fourth time was the right one
Not even a month has passed since Marc Márquez received the authorization from his medical team to get back on a motorcycle. The rehabilitation after his fourth operation on his right arm was meeting the most optimistic deadlines, but he needed to check it out on his Honda. Only then would he know if his arm was recovered to lead a normal life like that of any human being; or if he could also return to life as an alien on a MotoGP. Seen what was seen in Japan, it can already be said that Marc Márquez is back.
And it is that even more important than the pole he achieved on Saturday at the Motegi circuit is how he feels on the bike. In his previous returns to competition, his arm did not allow him to drive in a natural position. There was no pain, but he was not capable of exploiting the virtues that have made him the best rider in recent years. He later found out that he had the humerus rotated 34 degrees and that was the problem. With the complex surgery he underwent last June in the United States, this deviation was corrected and now he can move on top of his Honda as he used to.
«Japan has been the confirmation that I can ride as I want, at least with the position I want and I can lift the bike in the right-hand corners, which I couldn’t before. That gives me a lot of peace of mind. Then we will see what is one hundred percent of the arm, but I feel that I have already won with the decision to have surgery again, ”commented Marc Márquez, more smiling than usual.
It is early to demand that Marc Márquez be the huge rider of 2019 again. Physically, his arm is still far from being in top form. That is why he is more competitive in wet conditions than in dry conditions, when the physical demand on a MotoGP bike increases considerably. And that’s also why it’s easier for him to make a fast lap to get a pole position than to maintain consistency during a 24-lap race, because when fatigue comes in his arm he needs to compensate with other parts of the body and that’s where his natural position on the bike.
A message to Honda
The journey in the desert that Márquez has lived in the last two years can be extrapolated to the one that Honda has lived, his home since he landed in the queen category of motorcycling in 2013. The two-wheeled giant is going through its worst moment in the world championship , with a critical bike that this year has been very far in performance from European bikes, mainly Ducati and Aprilia.
Honda is last in the constructors’ championship and has only achieved one podium in 2022. There have been many more disappointments than celebrations for this Japanese firm in these two years, so these little joys are also very important to them. «Both the team, as Honda and as I needed to have this type of stimuli, this type of sensations. Celebrate things again and continue working to turn this situation around, ”explained the Cervera rider.
Marc Márquez drives his Honda at Motegi. /
He could not have chosen a better setting than the Motegi circuit, owned by Honda and which has brought him so much joy in the past, as he has held three of his eight world titles here. Next to the layout is the brand’s museum, which houses all its technological treasures and is a reflection of a company that is proud of its legacy. The corporation’s senior staff attends this grand prize every year, and now breathes a sigh of relief to see that its main asset shines again. Although that is precisely what the Spanish rider himself fears the most. The relaxation on the part of Honda. Not seeing that sometimes the tree covers the forest.
“We have to keep working because this is not the reality we are in,” an always demanding Márc Márquez claimed to Honda.
Despite not being in the battle for the title, these last races of the season are as important to him as when he played for the championship. Poles, podiums or victories are those “stimuli” that are so necessary, but nothing is as important now as accumulating quality kilometers. That learning that can only be done in a grand prix and with which he intends to return to the top in 2023. It is in the process, because as Márquez himself pointed out on Saturday: «The light at the end of the tunnel shines a little bit every time plus”.
