I finally watched Jerez last night. I love how the commentators were talking the track up, but it's usually a bit of a ptocession. Good to have the real Marc Marquez back, even if it was only for a few laps.
This is from David Emmett's subscriber notes after the race. Worth a read.
Finally, to an unlikely hero of the day. After examining the pace set by riders in FP3 and FP4, it was all too easy to write Marc Marquez off. Standing trackside for FP3, Marc Marquez did not look like Marc Marquez, but like someone had stolen his leathers to take the Honda RC213V out for a spin.
That lack of pace was deliberate, Marquez explained. Since his return from injury, he has been forced to save himself during practice, doing the bare minimum to ensure he got through to Q2, and to get an idea of the setup which might work. That left him with maximum energy for Sunday, and a chance to be competitive.
And he looked it. Marquez was pushing, bullying, catching moments, and saving a massive slide at Turn 13. That is a left hander, of course, Marquez stronger side. On the right side, he joked, that would not be possible. "It seems like he's got that confidence about it. I mean he was able to save a couple of decent moments from what I saw, just by the little time I spent behind him," Jack Miller said.
"It’s true that last year I had some experience and this year I tried to approach the weekends saving energy for Sunday," Marquez told us. "On Friday I tried not to use a lot of my energy for the rhythm."
It wasn't an easy strategy to follow, however. "It's difficult to work like this, but it's how I feel better on Sunday. On Saturday I push for single laps, and then in FP4 I tried to find out my rhythm, and then in the race I give everything," Marquez said..
Not yet
He was not ready to starting thinking about he MotoGP title, the Repsol Honda rider warned. "At the moment we are not ready to fight for the championship," he told us. "But it's true that we are getting closer and closer. Tomorrow we have an important test, we will continue to work on… I cannot say in that direction because still we don’t know the direction. We need to understand many things with this new bike."
He was struggling to adapt the bike to his riding style, so now he was attempting to approach it from the other end. "Nnow I'm trying to work on my riding style and try to ride in the best way possible with another riding style," Marquez told us. "But it's true still I’m struggling, but I can survive and I can get the good results for - okay in the past, you would say it’s not a good result, but now in the actual moment is a good position."
What is remarkable about Marquez is his ability to adjust his targets and live with what is realistic, rather than what he expects, which is to win every race he competes in. "It's true that I did a good race," Marquez told us. "I mean, one of my targets was fifth position today and I achieved fourth. I mean the targets need to be some targets that you can achieve because if not the frustration is too high every race, so it's not."
"Te mentality is not the position I would like to be, but what I understand is that you need to understand where is your level in actual moment and find a target that you can achieve," Marquez told us. Setting realistic goals and achieving them – or even overachieving them – is far more sensible, and places far more stress on Marquez in the races. And at this point in his career, where he is still struggling with his shoulder and arm, and a bike that doesn't want to turn with the impeccable feeling he had on the front, under-promising and overachieving is the best way for him to go.
Is Marc Marquez back? Not yet, but he is on his way. He hasn't forgotten how to ride, but he doesn't have the strength and fitness to do it week in and week out. But every week he gets strong, and a little closer to the front. And every week, he gets a little bit closer to the day when he can ride as he places, having developed the engine and chassis to his desire. He is 9th in the championship, just 45 points behind the leader, Fabio Quartararo. That is a big gap, but spread over 15 races, that is just 3 points a race he needs to recover from Quartararo. Not, by any means, impossible.
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Originally Posted by sugilite
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