Positive first day back on the MotoGP bike for Marc Marquez

Marquez getting back up to speed

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) made his long-awaited return to the track at the Misano Test.

The goal was to do 40 laps and ride during the morning session only, and it was mission accomplished for the eight-time World Champion.

Marquez finished his first day back on the bike P18 on the time-sheets, just over half-a-second behind Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro, but ahead of his brother Alex, Takaaki Nakagami and Stefan Bradl.

Marc Marquez

“Tests are never easy, even if you do a normal pre-season, when you arrive in Malaysia you feel tired and feel the speed of the MotoGP. Here was no different, it was even more difficult. The first run was impressive to feel the torque of the MotoGP bike, but then step by step I started to get faster and especially more comfortable. Riding in a good way. It’s true I already realised that to do a long or race distance I still need to work a lot and work on the muscles in the shoulder, but ok. Already on the second run I was already doing quite good laptimes and we started to try new items for Honda and for the future. It’s an important test for me but also as important test for Honda.”

Is Honda on the right path for 2023?

“Honda is working a lot, they know and realise we’re in a difficult moment. Conditions in the test are very different to a race weekend, here now we have a lot of grip and rubber and we need to be careful what we try and what is what. But they are working, they are making a big effort an know they need to make a big change for 2023. They are about all the areas of the bike because to be competitive like the others you need to have a perfect bike.”

Are you riding the same as before?

“Of course before the operation I was riding in a different way. Still, now I feel it’s more a natural way, the arm was more in a natural way, especially in the left corners. But still I did two weeks in the gym, two days on the bike and then straight into MotoGP. The timing is quite tight and I still need to ride in a different way, more comfortable, and especially the consistency isn’t there, but it’s normal. I’m coming back from a big injury and even like this the laptimes were there, but everyone is so fast at this test, they come in with another rhythm from a race weekend, but that’s not our target. Today our target was do these 40 laps, try to understand first of all how was my condition, which wasn’t that bad, and that’s why I tried the aero items, and tomorrow we’ll try to do more laps.”

Are you coming to Aragon?

“I don’t even know if I’ll ride tomorrow, or in Aragon! Today I rode only the morning to try and ride tomorrow, now we already have stuff to do, stretching and physio, to be allowed to ride tomorrow. We will see! We can’t decide today, can’t decide tomorrow and won’t decide on Thursday if I’ll ride in Aragon or not. We need to understand how the arm reacts.”