The eight-time world champion had not seen the chequered flag on a Sunday in MotoGP previous to Austria for the reason that 2022 Malaysian GP, marking a near-year stint of 301 days with no grand prix end.
At all the grands prix Marquez began in 2023 previous to Austria he had crashed out, with all of his factors as much as final weekend coming within the dash contests.
However of venture on the tender rear tyre within the sizzling Austrian GP on Sunday allowed Marquez to take the chequered flag in twelfth on his troubled Honda, marking his first essential race end 10 rounds into the marketing campaign.
“It appears like a joke, however it’s true,” Marquez stated when requested about his first Sunday MotoGP end of the yr. “It’s the primary time I completed a race on Sunday [this year] and first factors of the season on a Sunday.
“Mainly, it’s simple to know. You simply method the race in one other mentality, as I did at Silverstone.
“Okay, [not finishing at] Silverstone was extra of a race incident, not driving over the restrict.
“As we speak I am going out, we selected the tender as a result of the sensation was fairly good, and in the long run, as anticipated the tyre dropped rather a lot. But it surely was acceptable.”
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Workforce
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Photographs
Previous to the summer time break, Marquez had been combating in robust positions in a number of grands prix – most notably France and Italy – earlier than crashing out.
However for the reason that resumption of hostilities on the British GP, he has altered his method to focus purely on amassing information for Honda fairly than on outcomes.
He famous after the Crimson Bull Ring spherical that the focus required is identical, as in any other case “it’s obscure” what is occurring with the bike.
Nonetheless, he concedes this method is “tough”.
“I’m concentrated in the identical approach [as if I was pushing for results], as a result of it’s essential to strive issues as a result of for those who strive new set-ups and various things on the bike and you aren’t absolutely concentrated, then it’s obscure,” he defined.
“However particularly as we speak for instance I had one other motivation, which was to attempt to handle that tender rear tyre as a result of I noticed that the sensation was good.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Workforce bike
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Photographs
“And in the long run, as we anticipated, the tyre dropped rather a lot. Once I noticed that I used to be able to assault, I overtook them [the riders ahead] and I am going.
“But it surely’s tough to method the races like this, however we tried many issues throughout this weekend.
“Each run was a unique bike. This morning was an enormous change, however we understood that was not the route.
“Then for the race, it was a small change however large from the dash race, which was a bit higher, reverse to the warm-up.
“So, step-by-step we try to analyse as a result of, with this yr’s aero, the bike is a bit completely different.”
