Marc Marquez: Another weekend working hard for the future

Battered by accidents and injuries during the opening eight rounds, Marquez returned from the summer break pledging not to override the struggling RC213V.

“In six races I broke three bones and one ligament. The approach now must be a different,” he had said.

Some doubted the eight-time world champion would actually be able to control his all-attack instincts.

But when Marquez backed off and began looking behind in the Saturday Sprint race, electing to study team-mate Joan Mir for the final laps on the way to 18th, it was clear he wasn’t bluffing.

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“The approach of this weekend was completely different,” Marquez said.

“You saw: I forgot the times, I forgot everything, and I was just riding with my feeling. If I don't feel it, like in the Sprint race, I was not pushing

“In warm-up, the feeling was good, so I pushed. But my target was to try to do a weekend without crashes for overriding your limit.

“[The Sunday race] crash was not from overriding, it was an unlucky situation. But I was not riding over the limits of the bike.

“So it's the correct approach I think to build the base and from that point try to build for the future.”

Honda had also gone back to basics on the technical front, removing the Kalex chassis and returning to a configuration Marquez and Mir had used at round one in Portimao.

Instead, the development work was done by LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami, who had a radical new high-downforce fairing.

It is not clear if Marquez and/or Mir will also homologate the new fairing design for this weekend in Austria, but Marquez indicated his general approach will be the same as Silverstone.

“I’ve used the time between races to keep working on my fitness. Every day is a bit better, so let’s see what is possible in Austria,” he said ahead of this weekend.

“The weather there can be a bit mixed, so we will need to work well consistently to make the most of the weekend.

“We know that it will be another weekend of working hard to try and improve and make a step for the future.”

While Marquez - who missed Termas, COTA and Jerez due to injury, then the Sachsenring and Assen Sunday races - still hasn’t scored points in a Grand Prix this year, new team-mate Mir hasn’t reached the chequered flag since Portimao.

“We come to the Red Bull Ring looking to build off what we did in the previous race,” said the 2020 world champion, who has only completed two full grand prix weekends this season.

“Sunday didn’t go to plan, but overall with the weekend we were able to make progress and get back to being comfortable on the bike. This is the line we need to follow again and really try to maximise the time we have on track.”

Marquez and Mir are currently just 19th and 25th in the world championship standings.