Marc Marquez marks another important step in the second half after the fourth intervention in the arm: in Motegi he closes at the foot of the podium.
It was not possible to hold a high pace for 24 laps, but Marc Marquez takes home an excellent 4th place at Motegi which encourages and excites the whole Honda environment. It matters little if the podium has been missing for 15 GPs, but the return of the champion begins to feel all the weight of him, in his second race after the fourth surgery on his right arm. In Aragon his race ended after a lap due to the double contact with Quartararo and Nakagami, this time reaching the checkered flag.
This was the real goal of the Cervera phenomenon, instead he gave a fourth place that bodes well for the future of the team and the champion, with a delay of just 7 seconds from the winner. Jack Miller. Only the day before he had amazed the entire paddock with his pole position in the wet: “The weekend was very good, but you have to be realistic: in a dry Grand Prix in all the sessions I think that the position would not have been this, but a little further back.“.
Marc Marquez near the podium area
On the first lap he experienced a problem aboard his RC213V, solved with the map change, but in the meantime he had already lost some positions. He locked himself in fifth place behind Miguel Oliveira’s KTM, with three laps to go he dared and overtook the Portuguese: “It was a long time since I was able to attack in the final, often the opposite happened and others attacked me“. The Twin Ring by Motegi it is a track that certainly hides the technical problems of the Japanese prototype, but it is also true that the eight-time world champion knows how to make a difference.
In comparison Pol Espargarò he finished 12th with 17 seconds behind the Australian from Ducati, Alex Marquez 13th with a gap of over 18 seconds, Taka Nakagami last with 43 seconds of delay. Yet Marc Marquez still has physical limits that do not allow him to drive as he would like, just over three months have passed since the intervention in the US and only in winter will the bone be regularly stabilized: “I didn’t expect to finish so well and to be able to attack in the final laps“.
Three laps from the checkered flag, the multi-champion pulled the rabbit out of the magic cylinder and launched a last paw on the RC16 of Miguel Oliveira. A clear sign that the rehabilitation is proceeding perfectly and we will soon be able to review the talent we knew before the accident in Jerez in 2020. “My arm was tired, but I didn’t have pain like in other races“.
