The Czech Republic Grand Prix was a tremendous physical and mental test for Marc Márquez, who after dislocating his shoulder on Friday in a hard fall, was able to overcome the pain today and finish in a well-deserved and hard-fought seventh place. With this result, the Repsol rider scores 9 important championship points, which allow him to continue to lead the standings with a 15-point advantage.
With the threat of rain minutes before the start, the race was declared ‘in the wet’, so the majority of the riders on the grid opted to go out on grooved tyres, including all the riders in the first three rows. When the red lights went out, Márquez had a good start from fourth place, reaching the end of the straight in second and maintained this position until the end of the first lap.
However, today was not a good day for the injured Márquez to take unnecessary risks, who also had the added problem of excess wear of the right side of his rear tyre. This detail forced him to take a more cautious approach than initially expected and he was overtaken by several riders without being able to counterattack. The constant skidding of the rear wheel of his bike made him focus on his main objective, which was not to fall, finish the race and score some valuable points.
While a recovered Nico Terol rode alone towards victory, Márquez was unable to fend off the attacks of Rabat, Folger, Kornfeil and Smith, who finally overtook him in the second half of the race. With the right side of his rear tyre completely worn out and his left shoulder in a very bad state, the final seventh place and 9 points scored by Márquez were a good reward for a tough-fought performance. Thanks to this result, the Repsol rider maintains the lead with a 15-point advantage over Espargaró and the peace of mind of having a week and a half to recover from his injury.
The next World Championship race will be the Indianapolis Grand Prix in two weeks time. It will be the second time this season that the Motorcycling World Championship visits the United States.
Marc Márquez, 7th at 31.405 sec. >> Audio
“It was a quite tough and very strange race because the conditions at the beginning were not the best. My shoulder was not even at fifty percent of its performance and before the start, there was a lot of confusion over tyre choice because of the rain. However, I was able to finish seventh and we are still leaders, so now we have to focus on Indianapolis and recovering from my shoulder injury. It didn’t hurt because they gave me a painkilling injection but I couldn’t really feel it and lap after lap I thought that the pain would come. I didn’t have any strength and we did what we could because it was a race in which it was very important to score points and very easy to fall. In the end, we achieved our aim and that’s very positive for the championship”.
