MotoGP | Marquez: “Disastrous weekend, the worst in Ducati”

The “King of the Ring” relinquished the sceptre of the Sachsenring two years ago, but the German track is the ideal place for Marc Marquez to seek his first victory as a Ducati rider. Or rather, it would be. The Gresini rider is not having the best weekend of the season, the bad highside on Friday left consequences on his body (fracture of the left index finger and pain in the side) and the qualifying ended with a lap ruined by Stefan Bradl (later sanctioned) that relegated him to 13th position.

Once again, however, Marquez staged a great comeback, riding above the pain and taking sixth place right at the end, where he outwitted Maverick Vinales. This, however, does not console him. For years, the Sachsenring has been his fiefdom, but now the situation has turned upside down to the point that he believes that the German weekend is the worst of the year so far: “I had already warned that having the perfect weekend would allow you to fight for the top, but I had a disastrous weekend, the worst of the year. All the possible problems have emerged, let’s try to save it tomorrow”.

Physical pain played a major role in the weekend. Marc explained that he took painkillers to compete in the Sprint, so he was able to push without suffering too much. But the effect will wear off: “As for the physical, in two hours I will know how I am because I took painkillers that were stronger than I could take with an injection. The finger is not a problem, it is broken but it is fine, it is acceptable. But with the ribs, especially when I do more than five laps and the pulse goes up, the pain increases a lot”.

“Luckily we only have two right-handers, if we had been on another track it would have been impossible to drive, but with only two right-handers I can accept and tolerate the pain. Especially yesterday I was worried, that’s why I stopped during the tests. The doctors told me that I could also risk it, but I felt something strange on my ribs, I felt that my finger was broken, so I decided to stop and evaluate. I continued because they told me it’s not risky, but if they say it’s too much, I stop,” said Marc, who therefore does not guarantee his presence on Sunday.

The already difficult weekend was further complicated by a qualifying in which Bradl prevented him from doing his timed lap. However, the situation was already clarified: “I have a very good relationship with Stefan. At the beginning I was angry because I knew it wasn’t him that was angry, but the fact that it was the last lap and I had a mechanical problem. But that’s normal. Here at the Sachsenring the track is very narrow and it’s difficult to understand. And the second thing is that if you are a wildcard sometimes it’s very difficult to understand how fast the other bikes are. So no problem with Stefan.”

So, he was forced to start 13th, completing another great comeback, as we are used to. In Sunday’s race, will he be able to continue on this line in search of the podium or, in case he doesn’t feel pain, will it still be difficult to catch the riders in front? “Here it depends a lot on the start and the first lap, where you already lose a lot of time because you can’t overtake. You only have two chances to overtake, the last and first corners, then you can’t do anything. So we have to be patient and try to understand that this is the situation. Today, for example, I wasn’t crazy. I was just riding at the limit, fighting, trying to find my feelings and give my 100%”.