Can Marquez keep winning?
There are still huge challenges ahead
One swallow doesn’t make a summer. And one win won’t make a season for Marc Marquez.
He knows that. Honda knows that. So, let’s not be fooled into thinking Marquez will suddenly morph back into the winning machine of 2019. After confidence-sapping crashes in three races in a row for the first time in his career, a return to his beloved Sachsenring could not have been better timed.
Wins for Marquez and Honda in the Sachsenring are almost as inevitable as the sun rising.
He’s now undefeated on German soil on his last 11 visits.
As he predicted, the track meant his recovering right arm was never going to be the big physical constraint of previous races.
Full race distance at the Sachsenring entails riders tackling left corners 300 times and righthanders just 90 times, which put less stress on his weakened right side. Reality will bite this weekend when Assen’s high-speed corners and fast changes of direction provide a sterner physical test for the former world champion.
Honda haven’t lost at the Sachsenring since 2009 and the short and tight layout means their front and rear grip issues aren’t severely exposed without an abundance of hard braking zones and harsh acceleration.
Honda’s three other riders had six front-end crashes between them and the next best RC213V was nearly 15 seconds behind Marquez, as Pol Espargaro scraped a top 10. Clear evidence that the problems are far from solved and it was only a sprinkling of Marquez magic that saved HRC from another mauling.
‘Assen’s fast corners will be a sterner test’