DOHA (Qatar): Nine months since last starting a race and even longer since last finishing one, the time has come for Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) to return to MotoGP at Grande Prémio 888 de Portugal.
It’s been a long road to recovery following his crash in Jerez, and translating that into racing terms pulls it into focus: Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) are now all premier class race winners.
Mir is the first MotoGP World Champion in ten years not called Marc Marquez or Jorge Lorenzo.
Ducati are the reigning Constructors’ Champions and Team Suzuki Ecstar the Teams’.
Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) leads the 2021 Championship, many on the grid are in different colours and some familiar sparring partners have gone.
Some are new faces entirely and there’s even someone different on the other side of the Repsol Honda Team garage as Pol Espargaro continues to settle in.
This has all happened in what feels for many like a breathless, exciting rush – and will likely have felt to Marquez like the longest months of his life. But the wait is over, and the Grande Premio 888 de Portugal can’t start soon enough.
All eyes will be on Marquez from FP1, and having not raced on the Algarve last year, there will likely be thousands of words given to balancing taking it easy vs track familiarisation vs getting back on a MotoGP bike after so long vs expecting the eight-time Champion to put in a lap record in five seconds.
Some will expect the answers within five minutes and others within five Grands Prix, but the questions themselves are the bigger draw.
MotoGP Championship top five:
1 Johann Zarco* – Pramac Racing – Ducati – 40
2 Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – Yamaha – 36
3 Maverick Viñales – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – Yamaha – 36
4 Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo Team – Ducati – 26
5 Alex Rins – Team Suzuki Ecstar – Suzuki – 23
*Independent Team rider
(Source: MotoGP)
