MotoGP Silverstone: “Understand where we are” - Marc Marquez goes back to basics with 'Portimao' bike

Marc Marquez restarted his 2023 MotoGP season by returning to ‘exactly’ the same spec bike he had used back at March’s Portimao opener, during Friday practice for the British Grand Prix.
Marc Marquez, British MotoGP, 4 August
Marc Marquez, British MotoGP, 4 August

Out went subsequent developments such as the Kalex chassis, shipped over to theꦬ LCR team, as the eight-time world champion returned to where he’d been at the end of winter testing - in search of a good base set-up.

“If you don’t have a solid base, you cannot think of the future. You can’t build a good future,” said the Repsol Honda rider, battered by injuries after trying to force speed ꦛfrom his RCV in the opening eight rounds.

“So the target for today was to ride smoothly🌼 and find confidence on the bike again. Try not to have any warningౠs or crashes.

“Of course, on the hot lap I pushed, but if you saw, I used only one tyre because I didn🅺’t feel [ready] to push. If I dꦐon’t feel, I don’t want to push, like in a test.”

Remote video URL

The end result was 13th place for Marquez, although s꧂till tꦺop Honda, meaning a trip to Saturday’s Qualifying 1.

“I used three soft fr🌜ont tyres today. So tomorrow, if it’s not raining, then for qualifying I will only have aᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ used front,” he added.

“But it’s no change to start 13th or 18th.🌄 My target now is to find that base. Let’s see if we have a solid weekend.

“Of course, I push and when you push there is a risk of crashing. But today I didn’t have any special warnings. So this is the most important.💮”

Marquez: “The problems were the same”

The Spaniard explained that the back-to-basics 🤡approach 🃏had been decided upon after studying the impact of new parts and set-ups introduced during the opening eight rounds.

“We analysed the first par🦂t of the season - we started with one bike, then changed the chassis etc, and the problems were the same,” he said.

“So today we were riding with the Portimao bike, exactly the same bike, just to understand where 𓄧we are.

🌼“Then if you can have a good base, when we will receive I hope in the future new items, you can try them well. If you don’t🌼 have the base, you can’t try well.

“This is the target. Then of course in the next races I will push and tomorrow I will push in qualifying 🐽and the Sprint race, but only in the moments where I need to. Not every time.”

Marquez, who fractured his thumb at Portimao and then suffered rib and ankle damage at Sachsen🍷ring, revealed he now has an issue with pain in his groin.

“I hoped not to sꦦhow it, but you can see from my body language,” he said. “Yeah, on riding, I am not 100%, especially I have some pai꧟n in the right abductor which appeared in the past month.

“Maybe it came from the right ankle, that was not working well, maybe I was cycling in not a good way because it was painful. Then it star꧋ted to appear more and more and more. There is a lot of pain. Last week we worked with the physio but it’s not enough. But we know what it is and it will improve.”

Team-🧸mate Joan Mir, also returnin💖g from injuries this weekend, was 18th fastest.

Takaaki Nakagami ran a radical new Honda fairing, which he said delivers much more downforce but needs substantial se🦄t-up changes as a result.

Read More