It is a smiling Marc Marquez again what you see at Phillip Island. The Australian Grand Prix is his fourth race since returning after the arm surgery and the recovery path is progressing positively. Proof of this is today’s qualifying, which sees him start from the front row. In fact, the Honda rider is only behind the poleman Jorge Martin and pays 13 thousandths from the top.
A great contribution to this result, however, was made by Pecco Bagnaia. The Ducati rider, who closes the front row of the Australian GP, was against his will a tow for the Honda rider, who chose one of the most effective and powerful bikes on the grid to be able to place himself as far forward as possible on the starting grid. Marc acknowledges that he still needs a tow and thanks the Piedmontese for the slipstream offered: “I chose Pecco’s slipstream and the Ducati is very strong on the straight. This helps a lot. However, the pace is good on my own, I feel pretty good. physically well, I’m getting better and better and this is the most important thing ”.
So, net of the result also thanks to the help of Bagnaia, Marquez draws up an initial balance of the weekend and feels satisfied. Yesterday he worked as if he were carrying out a test, while on Saturday in qualifying he projected himself towards the race: “I’m happy with how the weekend is going. Yesterday we worked for the future, today more for the present, we focused on the setup. I felt better slowly. I think the pace is good enough, but now not enough to stay with Pecco above all. In FP4 he was scary in the second run with the hard on the rear. Tomorrow I start from the front row, which is quite good, let’s see how the race will be ”.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Goals for tomorrow’s race? Marc does not ask, he knows that it will not be easy to fight against the Ducati squad, once again very strong and competitive. He dreams of a podium, but he prefers to look at reality: “We don’t know, because the pace of the Ducatis is very constant, and that’s where we struggle. Because we use the edge a lot, instead Ducati enters the corners hard, stops and starts again very strongly. Let’s see how it goes, it will be important to choose the rear tire well, now we have to analyze well. A top 5 can be realistic. If everything goes perfect and there is a magical feeling, even a podium would be possible ”.
The work ahead of 2023 is a clear signal: Marc Marquez and Honda want to get back in front of everyone and are concentrating their energies on next year’s RC213V. However, the eight-time world champion prefers not to overbalance when thinking about the season to come: “I don’t want to talk about the title, because there are still two races to go, all winter. A lot of things can happen. You can talk about the title when you try the 2023 bike and when you also see what others have done. At the moment the most important thing is that Honda is working and I like that very much. I took a lot of risks in my arm to come back and fight for the championship. Seeing that the factory is working makes me happy and motivates me. We are entering that situation where everything is fine and positive ”.
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