Marc Márquez was one of the protagonists of MotoGP at the Circuit of the Americas, in the United States. On the weekend of his return, after missing the Indonesian race and the entire Argentine Grand Prix due to a new episode of diplopia (the involvement of the optic nerve on the left side), he crossed the finish line sixth, after starring in a superb comeback from last place, where he was doomed by a problem at the start.
“Sixth places can be taken for granted at the moment, but not in the long term. They are not results to fight for the championship”, analyzed the Repsol Honda team two weeks later, this time after signing the same position in Portugal. Márquez left Austin with the feeling of having been able to fight, once again, for victory. And with the expectation of understanding how the arrival in Europe was going to unfold, after some complications for the pilots of his brand in the first transoceanic events. The first test of this cycle, the one in the Algarve, did not leave a good taste in his mouth, after finishing more than 16 seconds behind the winner, and the arrival at the second, in Jerez, made him lower his expectations even more, after that at the beginning of the season he did not hide that the objective was to fight for the title.
«At the moment, talking about the championship is very optimistic. We have to build it”, he stated on Thursday from the Andalusian track, from which he came out with a good fourth place, although again very far from the first. More than twelve seconds. And with a test on Monday in the same scenario from which he neither drew great conclusions nor from which he was able to obtain substantial enough improvements to change the look of a season that is about to complete its first third.
“I have pushed. I have tried to be there and get a little more. Our position was to be eighth, ninth or tenth. With used tires we were there, but with new ones we have not improved the lap. The best has been with a medium of twelve or thirteen laps. Let’s see tomorrow if we can take advantage of the soft and take a step. We will not be in the top five, but the top ten would be a good result, “he commented this Friday after the first day of practice at Le Mans, and after qualifying fifteenth, confessing a fairly discreet goal. Fifteenth more than a second behind Enea Bastianini’s Ducati, who lowered the Le Mans pole record at a time when the riders have not yet put all the meat on the grill, something that is usually reserved for official practice of this Saturday.
«We are seeing in the last races how he is glued to everyone, and that is not normal. When Marc is fast, he doesn’t need to be behind anyone, he does it alone. At KTM I was the one looking for his wheel and he was the one trying to find a free track. And that is significant that we are not at our best moment », analyzed his partner Pol Espargaró on the situation of Honda. Espargaró, in fact, was the only one who with the golden wing motorcycle was able to get into the top ten, ninth, in a classification in which second overall stood out, Aleix Espargaró, second also on Friday, with Alex Rins, Johann Zarco, Pecco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Brad Binder, Joan Mir and Jorge Martín completing the dozen names that would virtually be in Q2.
A panorama that led Marc Márquez to finish off the speech that he had been modulating about the objective of fighting for the title, until he took it to the point of discarding it. «Before the season starts, when you train it is with the intention of winning a title, but when the races start, the rivals put you in your place. There you have to know how to understand what you can opt for. I tried, I had the eye injury, then I came back in Austin and in these three races, Austin, Portimao and Jerez, I have seen that we are not here to fight for the World Championship. As much as I want, we are not here to fight for the World Cup. It is understanding and setting realistic goals. You can’t set a goal to win a race when you’re having a hard time getting into the top ten. It would be frustration after frustration. You have to take realistic goals to have small motivations, like the fourth in Jerez. A reality that it is likely that only Márquez himself can change, although for now the sensations are far from this possibility.
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