The umpteenth return of Marc Márquez, who only thinks about recovering his physical condition

“The first days you see everything very dark,” Marc Márquez admitted upon his return to the circuits. “Then, the human being has the ability to forget and think about the future, and that is what I have done,” he added. In his endless epic in the elite of motorcycling, the seven-time MotoGP champion saw the light again this Friday, just 19 days after his last surgery. The reigning champion of the premier category got back on the Desmosedici GP Ducati in the morning session of the Italian GP taking place this weekend in Mugello, where the machines reach speeds of 365 km/h, and later received the final medical discharge after a check-up with the World Championship doctors, who wanted to make sure everything was in place.

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The hard work in the gym with his physiologist and trusted physiotherapists has been the norm these past weeks for Márquez, who is treading carefully in this latest return to competition. Understandable given the history of his right arm: he has had nine operations in seven years, the last to remove two displaced screws and a bone fragment from a preventive intervention in November 2019 on May 10, a day after also breaking the little toe on his right foot at the French GP.

Márquez spent just over 10 minutes on track in his first garage exit, the first time he had gotten on a bike both on and off the circuits. “It was not relevant to do training with a street bike because the discomfort he has had since the beginning of the year, with the radial nerve involvement, was only felt with the MotoGP,” his close circle clarifies. He did four laps and placed 13th in mixed conditions, the ground still wet after the night’s rain.

Although Dr. Ángel Charte was waiting for him, the first thing he did upon returning to the workshop was to discuss the situation with his track engineer and focus on the technical condition of the machine. He went out again for another five laps without changing tires and finished 15th in the session, more than a second behind Fabio Di Giannantonio, a brand teammate and winner at Montmeló two weeks ago. From less to more, but without forcing or complaining, at least publicly, about the affected joints. A thorough subsequent check confirmed that he will be able to participate without limitations in the rest of the sessions.

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Mugello is a distinguished stage in the history still being written by number 93, who is seeking his tenth world title and has gone almost nine months without winning since his crowning last season at the Japanese GP, also on the verge of his 100th victory. The Catalan achieved his first world victory here in 2010 in 125cc, and since then he has seen it all: a very hard crash at over 300 km/h in his MotoGP debut, a double win amid whistles from the Italian fans last year with the rosso Ducati… It was also here where he tearfully announced he needed to stop in 2022, on the verge of the fourth operation on the cursed humerus of his right arm.

All that is now past, however, and Márquez focuses on the future, on the comeback. “A comeback of my physical condition,” he clarified this Thursday. “If I come back here thinking I can win the title, I will hurt myself again,” he said. At 33 years old, and with 14 interventions on his whole body since his professional debut at 15, he does not want to rush as in other times and risk more than necessary by worrying now about how to close the 85-point gap that separates him from leader Marco Bezzecchi and the Aprilias, the great dominators of the championship so far.

Interestingly, at Ducati’s home race, the Bologna brand is pursuing its 100th official team victory in MotoGP in its centenary year. If Márquez achieves it, it would also be his 100th victory across the entire world championship ladder, a milestone only Italians Giacomo Agostini (122) and Valentino Rossi (115) have reached in the past. The Catalan arrives at the event still shaken after witnessing from afar the horrific accident of his brother Alex at the Catalonia GP. “I was paralyzed in front of the TV, and I had a hard time. We were very lucky. On Monday, when I hugged him, I felt calmer,” he commented on the incident.

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