Marquez “confused” by Honda’s potential at each MotoGP round

The six-time MotoGP world champion will compete in the fourth race of his injury comeback this weekend at the Australian Grand Prix, having rode to fourth in Japan and fifth in Thailand over the last three weeks.

Marquez’s points haul since he returned at Aragon has exceeded that which Honda scored during his six-race stint on the sidelines after the Italian GP when he went for a fourth major operation on his right arm.

He won on MotoGP’s last visit to Phillip Island in 2019 and the anticlockwise nature of the circuit has led many to believe Marquez can fight for victory this weekend.

But Marquez has moved to quash this, noting that the 2022 Honda is likely to “struggle” at Phillip Island given the bike’s difficulties in turning – but admits the form of the RC213V from round to round is confusing.

“This new Honda, the 2022 Honda, it’s a Honda that makes me a bit confused because sometimes I expect that we will struggle a lot and then for some reason we go better,” Marquez said on Thursday in Australia.

“Theoretically here we will struggle a bit, but on another hand it’s one of my favourite tracks. So, we will see.

“We will start with a positive mentality and during the weekend we will understand where we are.

“It’s true it’s a weekend where I need to try some things for the future, which affects your weekend. But it’s the time to do it.”

The Thailand weekend last time out was the first in which Marquez could push his body from the off in FP1, but admitted afterwards that come Sunday he was struggling.

Despite this, he says his approach to the Phillip Island weekend will not change as “it’s the way to improve” the physical condition in his right shoulder.

“If I feel well with the bike, I will try to approach the weekend with the same strategy as in Thailand, because I feel like it’s the way to improve,” he added.

“Then, I will see if on Sunday I will be OK. In Thailand for example on Sunday when I got up I was destroyed, but luckily for me it was a wet race and there was no limitation on physical condition and I was able to ride like I want.

“I refreshed my energy last week, it was important to take a rest, and now I feel OK. So, I will approach it in a good way.

“Then we will see because sometimes you want to ride fast but you can’t because you don’t have the feeling with the bike.”