Even though he got a magic polebecause I had no bike, no rhythm, and a third position in the sprint race on Saturday that I did not expect, Marc Márquez had a puncture in the race on Sunday with a fall, controversy and injury included.
Once again, and it is not the first Marc could not win and his maxim that without risk there is no victory. This time the risk had consequences not only for himself but also for the local rider, Miguel Oliveira who crashed when the man from Lleida lost control of his motorcycle when he tried to overtake Jorge Martín and collided with him and lost the line and the control of the Honda.
Only three laps had passed and surely many spectators, from that very moment, changed the channel or turned off their device. It is clear that Márquez is the real claim in a sport that loses followers year after year. That is why this season from Dorna they have tried to incorporate some of the initiatives that have encouraged Formula 1, including sprint races.
We have gone from dream rivalries like Lorenzo, Predosa, or Rossi with Lorenzo first and Márquez later to a generation of little-known pilots, beyond those who are true fans of motorcycles. Márquez should have filled the gap left by Rossi when he retired, but between the injury that has kept him practically gone for two years and Honda, which has not been able to evolve the bike like other brands, a void has remained that will be very difficult to fill. .
A leadership, that of Marc, who with mistakes like the one made this Sunday in Portimao, even though Honda says it was a problem with the bike blocking, is questionable. His excessive aggressiveness at timesalways going a little beyond his possibilities or his physique before, and the bike now means that everything could blow up at any moment, as happened today in the race.
Take away the local driverwhen he was third and with podium options, does not help the lack of affection that the eight-time world champion treasures in many circuits after his rivalry, his confrontation with Valentino Rossi. According to Marc, he was not going beyond his possibilities, apparently, and this has been confirmed by the team manager of Honda Alberto Puig, it was a problem on the motorcycle that got blocked which caused Marc to lose control and hit Oliveira’s motorcycle.
Whether it was a mistake by Marc or a failure on the bike the incident, in my opinion, It is part of the high competition and racing. Only the most ambitious drivers like Marc himself, or Valentino in his heyday or Formula 1 drivers like Versptappen commit this type of incident out of pure ambition, they push their vehicles to the limit with the sole purpose of winning. But if they didn’t they would stop being them, they would stop doing those special things that they do and be the beasts that they are. I do not justify it, I try to understand it and contextualize it. Marc will be punished, surely with a penalty for the next Grand Prix in Argentina, although his broken right thumb is already a punishment in itself. The problem is recurrence.
So The MotoGP World Championship starts bittersweet for Marquez, with Ducati and its world champion Bagnaia fired and with Aprilia, this time the one from Viñalesas The only mount capable of disturbing those of the Desmocedicci.
