Marc Márquez looked satisfied when he appeared before journalists at his Le Mans press conference. The Repsol Honda man blesses the new Kalex chassis from the outset, sees the two falls he had with risks under control as logical and controlled and laughs and makes us laugh when asked how his finger, fractured a month and a half ago, is doing.
-Two falls in the respawn. How have they been?
-The crashes coming in are… The one in the morning was due to the rubber and lack of sensations. After a month and a half at home, what do you want? Well this happens. I’m going fast, but the feeling of the limit is not there yet. The second drop is with a new, very different chassis. With the other chassis, I know where the limit is and I know it very well, but with this one I still don’t know the limit or what the reactions of the bike are. The thing is that in the afternoon the track was a bit strange and we didn’t quite feel comfortable. There have been many falls. And if you lose a tenth on the straight, you have to recover it by braking, which is where the risk is and especially in that last part, which is where the difference is made and it is very difficult to manage, especially when you are going to do a fast lap.
-How tiring or hard has it been to finish in the top ten?
-Today has not been tiring. I wanted to go on a motorcycle so much that I didn’t mind taking risks. 90% of the pilots, surely, would have taken it easy, they would have finished the fifteenth and tomorrow they would see, but I am not like that. I have pushed everything I could and I have entered Q2, which could have been no, and being the only Honda in there is no coincidence. It’s because you have to take some risks, yes, which you later pay for with an injury, but hey. Today I managed the risks quite well even with two crashes, because it’s not easy to go from being home for a month and a half to come here and test two different chassis. For tomorrow I have already asked the team that I want two identical bikes, so that I too can work on my riding style and try to be more consistent. It is one thing to go fast and the other to feel those sensations with the tires and the feeling of knowing when you can crash and when not.
-He says that he has asked the team for two identical motorcycles. Do you have two Kalex chassis at your disposal for tomorrow?
-This is the other one, if you go with a different chassis on each bike, because we only have one Kalex at the moment.
Was it damaged in the fall?
-We do not know. The other Kalex is held by Mir. We have one for each driver because we have equal conditions in terms of parts, which is logical in a factory team. We’ll see, but I think a Kalex chassis will be safely mounted, if it’s okay after the crash, because I think it’s necessary to continue learning about this motorcycle concept.
– How has the hand worked? It has been seen that he has checked her immediately after the first drop…
-The hand, with what I have suffered in recent years, this is not ‘naaa’. (Laughter). It bothers a bit, but it does not harm me or limit any type of movement. I have checked her because she is bothering me and I notice something. I have been at home for a month and a half and through the networks it seemed that I was training normally, but I have not been able to train the push and I still do not have the strength when braking. I don’t have the same physique as in Portimao and I already have soreness in my triceps, which are things after spending a month and a half without riding any type of motorcycle. Perhaps it will go from more to less, because physically I am going to go down, but it is important, because then three weeks come to continue working.
(In his English version, Marc also commented on interesting things.)
Chassis Comparison: “We have tested the two chassis, and that has not made the day easy, because every time I went out on the track it was with a different bike, which requires a different riding style, a different way of approaching the corners and this complicates life. But it was time to do it. Tomorrow we have to analyze things, but I think we have to follow the line of the Kalex chassis to try to understand this different philosophy. There are negatives, there are positives, but it’s about absorbing those negatives to try to be faster. Having said that, we are still a long way from those ahead”.
Ask for more: “The new chassis another step in some areas, at this circuit, but we need more steps, but it’s not the only one we need. We need more steps. We still have to pull too hard on the brakes, because we lose a lot of acceleration, that’s why we push a lot at the front, that’s why all the Hondas drop too much, but this is the way to go. I am a driver who is going to keep pushing to try to understand the path for the future”.
cannibal instinct: “In the late afternoon, when I went through the straight, I was P8. So I’ve kept pushing. And I told myself that I had to try the time because that way I could be in Q2, but that, if not, they would get a yellow flag and the others would not improve ”.