The die is cast. After the last MotoGP pre-season tests, the reality is stubborn: the Ducatis are scary, they took seven of the first eight positions, with the champion Pecco Bagnaia erected as enemy number one destroying the clock… while Marc Márquez with his Honda continues far behind: he closed the test in a worrying 14th position. “I want to be optimistic, but we can’t be too optimistic because we don’t get past 14th place; so we are still far behind”, admitted 93.
If the last of the six days of testing had to serve Honda to substantially improve the bike, to get closer to the level of the Ducati with new adjustments, parts and solutions, Márquez’s decision was eloquent: he discarded the material that they brought him from Japan , like the chassis that Stefan Bradl tested in Jerez. So the Catalan has kept the first machine that he tested in Cheste in November.
“Unfortunately, some of the parts that Honda has been bringing have not worked as expected. And today we ride with the same bike we ended up with in Malaysia: it’s the same bike concept from last year, it’s a bike similar to the one in Valencia”, he acknowledged, highlighting HRC: in four months the bike hasn’t been able to evolve motorcycle.
So, with the new old bike, Márquez has hardly been able to improve. The sensations in the winged garage could not be more mundane. Resignation is required. The RC213V is still far behind, eight tenths behind the Ducati de Bagnaia, which smashed the Portimão record. Also eleven more pilots. The Hondas couldn’t. His progress is imperceptible: in the Sepang test, a month ago, Márquez was 10th, seven-tenths behind Marini.
Two weeks before the World Cup, the words of the Cervera rider do not lie: “We are not where we want, obviously. Hondas rank from 13th (Mir) to 15th (Rins). But now I gain nothing by doing bad blood. If you start with a negative mentality, the year can be very long”, said Márquez, realistic about his options: “If the race were tomorrow, I would fight to finish between 5th and 10th”.
Three weeks ago, at the Repsol Honda presentation in Madrid, he was more optimistic: “If we work well in Portimão, I can be in the group of five favourites.”
But the last two days of tests have not been that great either. Márquez spent the three days in Sepang testing everything, following the instructions of the new technical manager, Ken Kawauchi, who wanted to test everything. The Catalan complied, ruled out two motorcycles and asked to focus with his faithful team on the first grand prix machine to get the best out of it.
At least yesterday, he was able to do a simulated Sprint race (a batch of eleven laps) and ride at a “quite good pace, although far from the four or five in front; of course, it would not have been enough to win. As calculated by 93, now he himself “would lose half a second per lap with the Ducati”.
The photograph left by the pre-season tests in Portimão is that of a very strong Bagnaia, in rhythm and speed over one lap, which reinforces him as the top candidate. His Ducati colleagues escort him in the top 8, with Àlex Márquez 7th (4 tenths behind) and Jorge Martín, 8th.
The closest to the Desmosedici is Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha, which went from 8 tenths to just 3. “I’m much better than Saturday, but I’m still not exactly where I want to be. I did not expect to make such a big change from yesterday to today, I am quite happy, but we are not 100% ready”, said the Frenchman.
For his part, Aleix Espargaró, 10th at 0s6, announced that he might have to undergo surgery for a possible fibrosis in his right arm. “I don’t have any strength in my right arm. Now I am not able to do more than three or four laps in a row. It’s as if my wrist is asleep, I have no feeling in my fingers”, commented the man from Granollers, who will be examined today at the Dexeus in Barcelona to decide whether to have surgery on his arm to arrive on time for the start of the World Cup on March 26 in Portugal.
