Marc Marquez labelled the German Grand Prix weekend as “the worst of the year” so far, as crashes and mechanical troubles limited him to sixth in the Sachsenring MotoGP sprint.
The Gresini rider has a record eight wins at the track in MotoGP, but he wasn’t a factor in Saturday’s half-distance race after qualifying on the fifth row in 13th.
The Spaniard’s troubles began in practice on Friday with two high-speed crashes, the second of which at Turn 11 left him with a fractured finger and bruises on his ribs.
Forced to go through Q1, Marquez had to abort his second run due to a mechanical problem on his GP23 before a final effort on his second bike was wrecked by Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl, who was found guilty of impeding him and handed a three-place grid penalty for the offence.
Although the six-time MotoGP champion was able to make some progress from outside the top 10 in the sprint, overtaking Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales at the final corner to grab four points for sixth place, it was still a case of what could have been for a rider who between 2013 and 2019 was unbeatable at the Sachsenring.
Speaking after the sprint, the 31-year-old bemoaned the issues he encountered both on track and in the Gresini garage as he finished more than six seconds behind race winner Jorge Martin’s GP24-spec Pramac Ducati.
“I already said that if I had a perfect weekend I would be able to fight with the top riders,” he said. “But I had a disastrous weekend, the worst of the year.
“All the mechanical problems we can have, happened this weekend.
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“With Q1, with second tyre, we had a mechanical problem there and for that reason, we say this bike, ‘no’. We jumped on the other bike and unlucky for us there was a traffic jam.
“But there are some things you cannot control and this weekend ‘somebody’ say that you cannot do it.
“But even like this, we continue to fight and starting from 13th place in the sprint race we were able to finish sixth.
“The good thing and the positive thing is when I had free track, the pace was very similar to the top.”
Marquez reported a lot of physical pain in the wake of his scary highside crash in second practice, despite being declared fit by doctors to take part in the sprint.
He explained that the anti-clockwise nature of the track allows him to see out the weekend, but even then it wasn’t easy to ride the bike for longer durations.
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