The MotoGP opener at the picturesque “Autódromo Internacional do Algarve” generated headlines that would last for half a season. In the MotoGP class alone, there is already a hospital with five riders: Pol Espargaró (broken jaw, broken vertebrae, contused lung), Enea Bastianini (broken right shoulder blade), Jorge Martin (broken big toe on the right), Miguel Oliveira (severe bruises) and Marc Márquez (first metacarpal broken right) sustained injuries. Pol, Enea, Marc and Miguel will even have to do without the Argentine GP next weekend.
Now it is still puzzling whether Marc Márquez will be spared his double long-lap penalty after the reckless shooting down of Oliveira because the FIM has announced him for the Argentine GP, but the Honda star will not drive there.
The wording should have been: “… at the next possible MotoGP race participation.”
The penalty must then be completed in the race over the full distance, it may not be completed in the Saturday sprint (half distance, half points).
Valentino Rossi said several times about Marquez: “He always apologizes nicely, but he doesn’t mean it seriously and misbehaves again at the first opportunity.”
This impression was also conveyed by the six-time MotoGP world champion on Sunday. He insisted that he wasn’t in attack mode for the first two laps, that he was calm and relaxed because he had only counted on a top five result. But unfortunately the front wheel locked when braking.
Well, if you brake 50 or 100 meters later than your opponents in every corner, something like that will happen sooner or later.
If Marc Márquez was really relaxed at Portimão on Sunday, despite ramming Jorge Martin at Turn 4 on the first lap and scooping Oliveira at Turn 3 on the second lap, then I’m looking forward to the day when he’ll be in the « attack mode» switches.
“I’m angry and frustrated,” said Oliveira’s RNF Aprilia team boss Razlan Razali, whose number 1 was promoted to misery by number 93.
Marc Márquez: title already lost?
It’s no secret that Marc Márquez is an exceptional motorcycle racer and a personality that commands a great deal of respect from anyone watching. His driving skills, his willingness to take risks, his vehicle control, his willingness to make sacrifices, his tireless training diligence puts everything that has gone before in the shade.
But the line between genius and madness is sometimes hard to discern with the naked eye.
That’s why we experience Marc’s driving highlights again and again, which alternate with hara-kiri manoeuvres. That’s why he was relegated to the last row of the grid several times in Moto2. And when he was left out of good spirits in Argentina 2018 when he stalled his bike on the grid and accrued four penalties in the space of 40 minutes, there was never a word of criticism from Honda.
Because Marc Márquez has been a guarantee of success for the Honda Racing Corporation for more than ten years, even if his uncompromising driving style has long since taken its toll – in the form of around a dozen injuries from shoulder dislocations to a broken upper arm, which was only properly repaired during the fourth operation , plus two bone transplants, a bone marrow infection, and three insidious double visions.
But Marc Márquez is apparently not ready to change his strategy. Trophy or hospital, all or nothing, is the simple motto.
After the 2022 Mandalika GP, Honda test driver Stefan Bradl expressed his conviction that Marc Márquez, who was determined to do anything, would not change his uncompromising driving style.
Well, that’s his own decision, as long as it doesn’t endanger fellow workers.
But Marc’s Honda colleagues Joan Mir and Alex Rins are provisionally in positions 10 to 13 with the unfit Honda because their instinct of self-preservation is much more pronounced than Marc Márquez’s. Other top drivers with material that is not capable of winning for the time being are also satisfied with corresponding results – Miller, Binder, Quartararo and so on.
Because the Ducati supremacy and the factory Aprilia are difficult to bend.
It’s also a fact: The Márquez predecessors of the recent past from Sheene to Roberts to Schwantz, Lawson, Rainey, Doohan, Biaggi, Rossi, Hayden, Stoner and Lorenzo were almost never involved in such a mess as Marc Márquez.
It is quite possible that Marc Márquez has already lost all his chances at the World Cup with his careless action on Sunday. Because he could have scored eleven valuable points for a possible fifth place. So he thoroughly failed in this damage limitation.
He is missing in Argentina, where 37 points are awarded again. And on his favorite track in Texas, he will have to do two long laps on Sunday April 16 despite the FIM’s form error.
That could put a top ten finish out of reach and leave Marquez almost 100 points adrift of Bagnaia at the Jerez GP.
The Repsol Honda star publicly asserted on Sunday that he deserved this punishment. Or did he not mean it that way?
If Marc Márquez wants to go down in history as a great champion, he will have to reconsider his risky strategy.
With 21 Grand Prix and 42 competitions, it would make sense to be at the front of every race weekend. Especially when the most victorious rider of the last two years (Pecco Bagnaia) is also on a vastly superior bike.
Otherwise, the little brother Alex on the Gresini-Ducati will consistently be better placed in the world championship table. In the long run, that hurts more than a demolished metacarpal bone.
Results MotoGP race Portimao (26.3.):
1. Pecco Bagnaia (I), Ducati, 25 Runden in 41:25,401 mins
2. Maverick Viñales (E), Aprilia, +0.687 sec
3. Marco Bezzecchi (I), Ducati, +2,726
4. Johann Zarco (F), Ducati, +8,060
5. Alex Marquez (L), Ducati, +8,125
6. Brad Binder (ZA), KTM, +8,247
7. Jack Miller (AUS), KTM, +8,381
8. Fabio Quartararo (F), Yamaha, +8,543
9. Aleix Espargaró (E), Aprilia, +9.294
10. Alex Rins (E), Honda, +11,591
11. Joan Mir (E), Honda, +16.992
12. Takaaki Nakagami (J), Honda, +17,448
13. Augusto Fernandez (L), GASGAS, +21,723
14. Franco Morbidelli (I), Yamaha, +27.050
– Raúl Fernández (E), Aprilia, 2 laps behind
– Luca Marini (I), Ducati, 4 laps behind
– Jorge Martin (E), Ducati, 6 laps behind
– Fabio Di Giannantonio (I), Ducati, 15 laps back
– Miguel Oliveira (P), Aprilia, 23 laps behind
– Marc Márquez (E), Honda, 23 laps behind
MotoGP-Ergebnis Sprint, Portimão (25.3.):
1. Bagnaia, Ducati, 12 Rdn in 19:52,862 min
2. Martin, Ducati, + 0,307 sec
3. Marc Marquez, Honda, +1,517
4. Miller, KTM, + 1,603
5. Viñales, Aprilia, +1,854
6. Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, + 2.106
7. Oliveira, Aprilia, +2,940
8. Zarco, Ducati, +5,595
9. Alex Márquez, Ducati, + 5,711
10. Quartararo, Yamaha, +5,924
11. Raul Fernandez, Aprilia, +8,160
12. Brad Binder, KTM, + 8,384
13. Kidneys, Honda, +11,288
14, Morbidelli, Yamaha, +17,138
15. Nakagami, Honda, +18,128
16. Di Giannantonio, Ducati, + 21.235
Standings Drivers’ World Championship after 2 of 42 races:
1. Bagnaia, 37 Punkte. 2. Viñales 25. 3. Bezzecchi 16. 4. Zarco 15. 5. Miller 15. 6. Alex Márquez 12. 7. Aleix Espargaró 11. 8. Brad Binder 10. 9. Martin 9. 10. Quartararo 8. 11. Marc Márquez 7. 12. Rins 6. 13. Mir 5. 14. Nakagami 4. 15. Augusto Fernández 3. 16. Oliveira 3. 17. Morbidelli 2.
Constructors’ Championship:
1.Ducati, 37 Punkte. 2. Aprilia 25. 3. KTM 16. 4. Honda 13. 5. Yamaha 8.
Team World Cup:
1. Ducati Lenovo, 37 Punkte. 2. Aprilia Racing 36. 3. Red Bull KTM 25. 4. Prima Pramac 24. 5. Mooney VR46 Racing 16. 6. Gresini Racing 12. 7. Repsol Honda 12. 8. Monster Energy Yamaha 10. 9. LCR Honda 10. 10. GASGAS Tech3 3. 11. CryptoDATA RNF 3.