MotoGP Thailand: Marc Marquez: "I didn’t know it was a piece of Martin’s bike…"

Marc Marquez suffered an unusual incident as he pulled off track behind Jorge Martin at the midway stage of Friday afternoon’s practice for the Thai MotoGP.
Marc
Marc

Marquez, who had been chasing Martin for a tow, was struck on the s꧅houlder by a piece of aero that b꧅roke off the Pramac rider’s Desmosedici as he swerved off track and into the pit lane.

It looked as though the front whee♉l aero may have been broken when ꦐMartin clipped a marker after cutting across the kerbing.

Either way, after being flipped from his bike it hit Marquez, w🍎ho immediately began rubbing his right arm and shoulder.

“Before the time attacks, we were going into the box, and something - I didn't realise at that moment that it was a piece from his bike🌳, I thought it was something on the track, even maybe the [pit lane marker] - hit me in the ♈shoulder,” Marquez explained.

“At that time it was painful, and for the next two minutes it was 𒊎painful, but then it was no limitation for the tim🦩e attack.”

While Martin went on to complete a practice double, despite a late fall, Marquez was to become a ‘victim’ of the ultra-close t﷽imesheets.

Despite lapping just 0.369s from Martin, the Repsol Honda rider missed out on the top ten by one place and a ‘night𒅌mare’ 0.065s - sending him into Saturday’s Qualifying 1.

Visibly frustrated as he spoke to the team immediately after the session, Marquez confirmed that his body language had𝓡 been i♈ndicating a lack of acceleration.

“When I put the new tyre, it was a lack of torque,” he said. “And it's why I was a bit, not angry, just disap💯pointed, some frustration, because you feel you are not using all the new♒ tyre.

“And in so𓄧me points, the bike was weak. And for tomorrow, we will fix it, but I was more disappointed because I saw just 60 milliseconds to Q2 and Q1 is a nightmare! [Q1 is] the worst practice of the world.”

Although Marquez had at least been close on the time attack, he warned he wa🔯s “far” in terms of race pace.

“I don't know if it will be a super close sprint race, but we will be far from the top guys,” Marquez said. “In one run Vinales overtook me, and in one lap I lost 1 second maybe. So we don't have the pace. Maybe it's tight 🌌at the top, maybe. But we will be far.”

The eight-time world champion, who hitched a tow from Fabio di Giannantonio, the rider he is r🅰eplaci🦄ng at Gresini Ducati next season, at the end of the session, added that “between 10 and 15, it's our position at the moment.”

Team-mate Joan Mir was 16th and LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami 20th. Like Marquez, both also spoke of being held back by the electronics as they sought a balance ✨between wheelspin and too much traction control.

Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit s💎tory and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.

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