Marquez downplays victory chances in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — Marc Marquez is back in Texas after his latest bout with injuries and vision problems with shaken confidence and lowered expectations for the Grand Prix of the Americas, a race he has dominated for nearly a decade.

These are trying times for Spain’s six-time MotoGP champion as he confronts rare uncertainty on his Repsol Honda and even some fear of what could happen if he has another hard crash.

Marquez is racing this weekend after a scary crash in warm-up laps for the Indonesian Grand Prix on March 20 left him with double vision that knocked him out last Sunday’s race in Argentina.

“In the way of confidence I feel much worse, that’s obvious after another injury, with the vision. It’s something that makes me scared,” Marquez said this week. “(But) I can’t fear that I cannot crash. Racing is my passion.”

A podium finish Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas would go a long way toward energizing what has been a troubling season for Marquez, whose last championship was in 2019. His 2020 season was wiped out by injuries from a crash in the first race, and 2021 was a struggle to regain his winning form.

He still won three times last season, including in Austin, only to crash in a training session. That fall disrupted an ocular nerve and caused a bout of double vision.

And that’s what happened again with the crash in Indonesia that sent Marquez to the hospital for a concussion. It was hours later on his flight home to Spain when the double vision problems started again.

“I don’t remember much. I remember more from the video and the images than what I felt” in the crash, Marquez said “I feel lucky about that crash“that it wasn’t even worse.

Lucky but still unnerved about the recurring vision problems.

“It’s something that makes you scared, it makes you very uncomfortable, even for a normal life,” Marquez said. “The first week was difficult. The second week was better every day.”

Regaining the confidence to ride and take risks at high speed has proven difficult, even for a racer who already ranks among the greatest in the sport’s history at the age of 29.

“Third, fourth, fifth injury in three years. And difficult injuries,“he said. “Two weeks ago, I wasn’t motivated to even come here. I was motivated to sit on the sofa and not take care of anything. My brother (Honda LCR rider Alex Marquez) helped me a lot, pushed me to train again.”