The 31-year-old Japanese rider is a successful member of the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) squad, where he acts as reserve rider but has also been part of the starting line-up, including at the legendary Suzuka 8 Hours race just weeks ago where he finished on the podium in a two rider line-up, adding to his multiple Top 5 finishes at the event. He also competes on a GSX-R1000R in the illustrious All Japan Road Race series for Yukio Kagayama’s team, Yoshimura Suzuki RideWin. He has enjoyed success in the series in recent years, and he currently sits third in the championship standings.
The first of the two races, at Jerez, was a tense four-way fight throughout. Starting from pole, Cristianmm17 controlled the race, throughout despite the close attentions of Ecstar Suzuki’s AndreaSaveri11, Ducati Lenovo eSport Team’s PieroRicciuti55 and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jack Hammer4658. Just 1.9s covered the high-speed quarter, who finished in that order at the flag.
Shortly afterwards, the Moto2™ race was underway and it was title-chasing Ogura starting on pole position for the second time this season. The last time he’d done so before was the Spanish GP – his other race win of the season. Now, it’s two poles, two wins in 2022. And after Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) struggled to make progress and Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) crashed out of P3, the Japanese star is the World Championship leader.
After the year opened with an on-site event at the Italian GP, rounds two, three and four of the Global Series rounds will be Virtual Rounds. In another change for this year, there will be a different points-scoring system for these Virtual Rounds. The winner of a race will score 12.5 points, the runner up 10, with third place scoring 8, and so on.
With Marc Marquez now finished a fourth operation on his right arm, the young racer is looking to test his young bones on the old twisties – and naturally, with the return to asphalt comes an episode or two of updates.
The first is fresh blood on the Marquez brothers’ turf; Motorcycle Sports tells us that Marc recently parted ways with his old manager, Emilio Alzamora, whose initial Covid-related excuse from the paddock turned out to be the end of nearly 20 years of service.
Now, Dr. Sanchez Sotelo of the Mayo Clinic has stated in a report from Crash that Marquez ‘has regained a great arc of motion,’ ‘recovered well from a muscular perspective’ and has ‘complete bone union’ – and what better way to get back on track (literally) than to keep shooting for the stars?
Marc Marquez with a can of Redbull. Media sourced from Motorcycle Sport.
“My future depends on Honda,” Marquez said.
“I have two more years on my contract. Honda is Honda, the brand of my dreams and I’m very grateful to them, but as long as I compete and think I have the level, I want a winning project. Otherwise… “
Marc Marquez doing what he does best on the MotoGP twisties. Media sourced from Crash.
Marquez’s trip to Madrid also caused a bit of commotion when he was seen spending time with team RedBull – something that caused the former LCR Honda Sporting Director, Oscar Haro, to add his own two cents.
“What’s in Austria? Red Bull. And if he goes there and doesn’t stay for the practice and the race, it wasn’t to talk to Honda. Which he has also done, but he has started to make a media issue out of it.”
Marc Marquez in a press release. Media sourced from Crash.
Bottom line, if Marquez is getting an idea of what is best for himself, he’ll be hard-pressed to not have at least half a dozen extra noses in the business; something that will require a strong manager to care for on behalf of the young racer.
‘Marc Marquez is no longer just a MotoGP rider, he is merchandising, he is a sponsor, he is advertising, creating an image, social networks… he is a product.”
“That can’t be handled by a third party, you have to do it yourself.”
Team Honda on the MotoGP circuit. Media sourced from Motorcycle Sport.
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“I am looking forward but I think today we had a great chance because I started well, I had a good rhythm but we just didn’t trust the medium, not choosing the medium rear tyre so clearly was a big mistake. But in the end, it was the gamble we took and it didn’t pay off, not every day is Christmas, so we need to try to work even harder, especially in the practice to understand it before. We tried in the warm-up, but unluckily it started to rain so we couldn’t try when the medium started to work. It was a difficult weekend but in the end, we found a lot of positive things about the bike and also my riding style improved a lot, so I can’t wait for Misano because I think we can be back on the top.
Afterwards, Fran and Elliott will talk through the hot topics from the weekend, including GASGAS coming to the premier class grid next season, Marc Marquez’s (Repsol Honda Team) appearance in the paddock and latest news on his recent check-up, Joan Mir’s (Team Suzuki Ecstar) injury and of course what we saw on track.
Dr Joaquin Sanchez Sotelo: “Today, I had the opportunity to evaluate Marc Marquez in regard to his surgical procedure recently performed at Mayo Clinic. Fortunately, Marc Marquez has regained a great arc of motion and has recovered well from a muscular perspective as well. Today, he underwent radiographs and a CT scan that show complete bone union.”
The stadium is located around 40kms away from the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in the Republic of San Marino, and fans can go watch some of their favourite riders for free – the likes of Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team), Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) are just three of the stars on show.
But the Red Bull Ring presents a unique challenge. First of all, it’s the fastest track on the calendar in terms of average speed: the lap record stands in at 1m 23.827s, over 4.3 kilometres an average speed of 183.2kph, some four faster than Phillip Island, the next quickest layout. Riders are believed to be using full throttle for 39% of the lap, ten more than the second most ‘gas-happy’ circuit.
