2023-09-30 10:36:21
Marc Márquez finished seventh in the 12-lap sprint race at the Mobility Resort Motegi today, losing 9.298 seconds to winner Jorge Martin, and of course he couldn’t achieve the miracle that Honda’s top managers had imagined against the superiority of Ducati, KTM and Aprilia have. Joan Mir couldn’t get past 13th place, Nakagami and Bradl ended up in 17th and 20th place. Unbelievable: Repsol-Honda is still far behind in the team world championship in eleventh and last place!
“I was super competitive in the first four laps today,” said Marc. “But then I felt a ‘drop’ on the rear tire, and then the rear wheel spun again as violently as it had the whole weekend before. Then we lost traction and it would have been too risky if I had tried to stay with the top riders. I really wanted to finish the sprint race. I had to take massive risks anyway. At the beginning I drove like I was in qualifying practice. Something like that goes on for four rounds, but you can’t keep it up for twelve rounds.”
Marc Márquez doesn’t imagine that he will be able to cut a better figure in tomorrow’s 24-round competition. «If you look at the tendency of the sprint, I started strong, but in the end I got slower and slower. This trend will not change tomorrow.”
Marc Márquez has finally overtaken his Honda colleague Alex Rins in the World Championship and is now fifteenth in the World Championship. He lost an incredible 251 points to the not exactly flawless World Cup leader Pecco Bagnaia.
The entire MotoGP field chose the hard front tire and the soft rear tire in the Michelin sprint.
“It is still unclear whether we will change the tire choice for Sunday,” noted the Honda works driver. “I’ll try the medium at the back in the warm-up tomorrow because I want to know whether it will wear off as much after four laps as the soft compound does in the sprint.”
By the way: Today the name of the new HRC development boss was also leaked, who will replace the dismissed Shinichi Kokubu as Technical Director from October 1st. This is Shin Sato, who has already been involved with the RC213V project.
What did Marc Márquez say about this personality? «In a big company like Honda or HRC or any other brand, you have to change something if the results aren’t coming. Either you have to change the drivers, the technicians or the motorcycle. yes, it looks like they are replacing big names within this project. You have now selected someone else. Yes, but that is not my responsibility. That’s Honda’s business. But you have to keep in mind that when people are swapped, the new technicians first have to find their way around their job, which takes time. We need new ideas. At Honda we now have to make the bike competitive in as short a time as possible.”
MotoGP results sprint, Motegi (30.9.):
1. Martin, Ducati, 12 Rdn in 21:00,734 min
2. Binder, KTM, + 1,390 sec
3. Bagnaia, Ducati, +5,276
4. Miller, KTM, + 6,194
5. Zarco, Ducati, +6,315
6. Bezzecchi, Ducati, +8,919
7. Marc Márquez, Honda, +9,298
8. Di Giannantonio, Ducati, +10,189
9. Viñales, Aprilia, +12,404
10. Raúl Fernández, Aprilia, +15,366
11. Pol Espargaro, KTM, +15,473
12. Augusto Fernández, KTM, + 15,592
13. Mir, Honda, +17,052
14. Oliveira, Aprilia, +18,092
15. Quartararo, Yamaha, + 19,333
16. Morbidelli, Yamaha, +19,645
17. Nakagami, Honda, +21,862
18. Crutchlow, Yamaha, 26,026
19. Pirro, Ducati, + 27,911
20. Bradl, Honda, +28,178
– Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, 4 laps back
World Championship standings after 27 of 40 races:
1. Bagnaia, 299 Punkte. 2. Martin 291. 3. Bezzecchi 252. 4. Binder 201. 5. Zarco 162. 6. Aleix Espargaró 160. 7. Viñales 139. 8. Marini 135. 9. Miller 115. 10. Alex Márquez 108. 11. Quartararo 105. 12. Morbidelli 77. 13. Oliveira 69. 14. Augusto Fernández 58. 15. Marc Márquez 48. 16. Rins 47. 17. Di Giannantonio 45. 18. Nakagami 40. 19. Pedrosa 32. 20. Raúl Fernández 29 21. Bastianini 25. 22. Mir 16. 23. Pol Espargaró 11. 24. Savadori 9. 25. Folger 9. 26. Bradl 6. 27. Pirro 5. 28. Petrucci 5.
Constructors’ World Championship:
1. Ducati, 465 Punkte. 2. KTM 262. 3. Aprilia 229. 4. Honda 126. 5. Yamaha 125.
Team World Cup:
1. Prima Pramac Racing 453 Punkte. 2. Mooney VR46 Racing 387. 3. Ducati Lenovo Team 334. 4. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 316. 5. Aprilia Racing 299. 6. Monster Energy Yamaha 182. 7. Gresini Racing 153. 8. CryptoDATA RNF 102. 9. LCR Honda 91. 10. GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3, 78. 11. Repsol Honda 64.
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