English
Italiano
The Le Mans weekend is fast approaching, and it will finally be possible to see Marc Marquez back in action on the track. The last appearance of the Spaniard was in the opening Grand Prix of the season at Portimao, which ended with the incident that saw him involved in the first laps of the race and which started a series of events that were only resolved yesterday. In the impact with Oliveira, Marc suffered a fracture to the first metacarpal of his right hand and was handed a sanction of two long lap penalties to be served in Argentina.
The now famous mistake in writing the sanction eliminated Marc's first problem, and now after the decision of the court of appeal he will not have to serve the double long lap penalty. As for the hand injury, the Spaniard had certainly hoped to be able to recover sooner. But the timing proved to be quite long and after opting to miss Argentina, Austin and Jerez, he will finally be able to get back on the bike at Le Mans. It will be a question of understanding what Marc's starting point will be, with a Honda that is certainly going through an unprecedented technical crisis, only partially hidden by Alex Rins' victory in Austin, the result of a series of circumstances rather than a newfound competitiveness of the RCV213.
For Marquez, his future as a rider is also on the table. He has given ample signs of intolerance towards the situation at Honda and irrespective of how much HRC is working, at the moment the light at the end of the tunnel remains distant. The new Kalex chassis was tested in Jerez by Bradl and Mir and Marc himself will certainly want to test it to see what the potential is for growth. But it won't take too many races before Marc will really have to make a decision about his future. The contract with HRC is valid until the end of 2024, but the champion has expressed that he is open to alternative proposals and any contract can be 'reviewed' if one of the two parties no longer intends to honour it. In any case, whether in HRC or elsewhere, the hourglass has been turned over and the grains of sand continue to fall. The Le Mans round will certainly not be decisive, but experiencing a positive weekend could be the keystone for Marc to regain confidence in Honda.
"I'm really happy to be back with the Repsol Honda Team and to be able to ride my bike again - said Marquez - First of all I want to thank my medical team for the professionalism and advice they have given me in the last few weeks. Of course, as a rider, you always want to come back as soon as possible, but with an injury like this it was really important to wait for healing. Now I'm here and I'm fully focused on the track, I have no worries about the injury because it's completely healed. Let's see what happens reserves the French GP and, above all, we work hard".
Joan Mir is also hoping for a positive weekend at Le Mans, after a truly disastrous first part of the season on the Honda. The 2020 champion has not yet found a solution with the Japanese V4.
“Arriving in France, we come with an open mind – he declared – We had a busy Monday test where we were able to try some things, especially working on the base setting of the bike. I am hoping that we will be able to take profit of this during the weekend. The French GP always has the extra element of the weather, often it is cold or raining. At the moment it looks a bit colder, but these cooler conditions seem to suit us better this year, so we are aiming to make the most of the situation we have. No matter what, we keep working together.”
