Marc Marquez: “I rode with the strongest painkiller, let’s see what we can do”

Marc Marquez’s tumultuous Sachsenring MotoGP weekend continued on Saturday in Germany where the Gresini Ducati rider returned to action, with a finger fracture and rib bruising after his 190km/h Friday highside.

Re-confirming his raw speed with fifth in final practice, Marquez’s hopes of fighting through Qualifying 1 were dampened by technical delays with his second bike then dashed when he was obstructed by Stefan Bradl.

The HRC test rider was later penalised by the FIM Stewards, while Marquez was left 13th on the grid.

“I want to say sorry again to Marc,” said Bradl. “Straight after the session I went and spoke with him in person, these incidents can happen, and I hold my hand up that it was my mistake. I accept the penalty for tomorrow’s race.”

The Sprint race saw Marquez steadily pick off his rivals, culminating in a last-corner pass on an equally sore Maverick Vinales for sixth place.

Marquez was left 6.281s behind race winner Jorge Martin and, after admitting he already needed a ‘perfect weekend’ to fight for a debut Ducati victory - the injuries, technical issues and qualifying woes mean it’s been anything but.

“Sometimes you cannot control everything,” Marquez said. “As I said on Thursday, if we wanted to fight for victory, we needed to have a perfect weekend. But this weekend, everything that can happen in the garage, happened!

“We had a few [technical] problems there, then that massive crash in Turn 11 didn't help. And again in Q1, we had another [technical] problem on the second tyre and then an unlucky situation with Stefan.

“Starting 13th place in Sachsenring you cannot do a lot, especially because you have only one or two points to overtake per lap. But apart from that the good thing is that when I have a clean track, the pace was there, similar to the top guys. So this is a good.”

Marquez has never been beaten in a premier-class Sachsenring grand prix but now views tomorrow as a race of survival given his physical condition.

“Of course, I’m a bit frustrated because I feel super good with the bike and I feel fast,” he said. “The comeback in the race was good. But tomorrow we need to survive and try to do the maximum as we did today.”

The 30-year-old added that he rode in the Sprint with, “the strongest painkiller we can take. So in two or three hours, we'll see where we are.

“The finger is fractured, it's painful, but acceptable. The biggest problem is the ribs, especially during the race when I start to breathe more deeply and the pain comes more and more and more.

“For that reason, I did only three laps yesterday afternoon and three [consecutive] laps this morning. But apart from that, let's see what we can do."

Marquez also confessed: "I must thank the fact that there are mostly left-hand corners at this track for my physical condition, otherwise I would have likely not raced at all."