Marc Marquez finishes Austrian MotoGP - his first completed race of this year
The Repsol Honda star has endured a tumultuous 2023 full of crashes and injuries and, heading into the Red Bull Rin💫g this weekend, had failed to complete a single grand prix all year.
But in Austria, the 10th round of the Mot🥃oGP season, Marquez completed an incident-free ride to restore s🎶ome confidence.
He scored points o🍌n a Suꦍnday for the first time since the 2022 Malaysian MotoGP.
The same cannot🍌 be said for his teammate Joan Mir, though.
He crashed out in Aust🥃ria, and has not completed a grand prix since the opening weekend at Portimao.
It means Honda’💖s factory duo, in 20 available attempts, have finished just one Sunday race each this season.
Mir’s misery had even extended to contemplat🍌ing retirement, aged just 25, during the s💫ummer break.
Marquez returned at Silverston💫e stating that he would dedicate the remainder of 2023 to rebuilding his confidence, and developing a bike 🦄to compete next year.
His weekend in Austria, which featured new ಌaerodynamics, seemed dedicated to that methodo𒈔logy.
Marquez 🦂is 19th in the MotoGP standings with 19 poin💧ts (he had scored some in sprint races previously).
Mir is 26th in the standings, with five points, the lowest of any full-ti🅠me ride﷽r.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sp🌜o꧋rts for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
