Alberto Puig analyses Repsol Honda’s first win of the season -Marc Márquez’ eleventh victory at Sachsenring.
How important was it for Honda to win again?
“Winning here at the Sachsenring is very important. It has been an incredibly important day, but even more so for the rider. Marc Márquez has spent a long-time suffering, without racing, without results and this is very painful for a rider like him. We have to appreciate what he has done and thank him for all his efforts during this period, then what he did in Germany was truly amazing. It was very important for the Repsol Honda Team, for all the staff working in HRC, all the people supporting us here at the track and behind the scenes, engineers, technicians, everyone. It’s a special day. It’s a day to thank everyone, especially Marc.”
What does it mean to a company like Honda to win again after 581 days?
“For a company such as Honda, that is used to winning many races throughout their racing life, this period has been very painful. But we understand that life can be difficult sometimes and at this moment we have some problems. We are working to overcome them in the best way that we can, trying to fix the problems with the RC213V. We understand that we have some weak points, we have recognized them. We know as well that Marc is not one hundred percent fit, but Sunday was an important day because we could manage a victory, but we do not believe that our problems are fixed. We will work to give all our riders, not only Marc, the best bike possible.”
Were there any negative points?
“This is Marc’s day, we are just focusing on appreciating what we have seen today. We can savor this moment for a short while.”
But there’s not too much time to celebrate, Assen is the next weekend.
“I think every member of the team has their own way of enjoying these few hours between races and will celebrate in their own way, especially Marc. Now we are moving to Assen and there’s no time to play there. We will arrive, we will discover a completely different scenario, probably it will be cold, with a lot of rain, but we will again see what the story is.”
Can this result change the rest of the season?
“Speaking honestly, I do not think so. I think we have to solve our problems and Marc still has to keep recovering. We will have ups and downs this season. The result at the Sachsenring was very important, but it doesn’t mean we have now fixed everything. Thinking like this would be a mistake, we should think about what we can improve little by little and face the new battle in Assen.”
