Marquez, resounding return to MotorLand Aragon

112 days after his last race, Marc Marquez made a rather remarkable return to the Aragon circuit. Since 13^e place on the grid, the eight-time world champion jumped immediately after the start to climb into sixth position at the second corner just ahead fabio quartararo. 

Coming out of the next corner, Marquez slipped from behind and had to cut the throttle. Quartararo, who was in the path, could do nothing to avoid the collision and ended up on the mat. “At turn 3, it’s true that I lost the rear a little and I had to cut the gas, but it wasn’t a big scare,” emphasizes Marquez. I saw the footage and the problem was that Fabio was super close, because his intention was probably to overtake me in this change of direction, like we did in the past. (…) I had this little slippage that we very often have with cold tires. I was unlucky because Fabio was very close and that's normal. »

According to Marquez, that’s when everything changed. “As I entered turn 5, I felt something strange,” he explains. At turn 7, Nakagami passed me on the inside and he went wide. I was inside and a little in front of him. I engaged holeshot and felt the rear lock up. I looked closely at the images and you can see that a part came off the fairing. When I started to feel it locking up, everything went crazy. The motorcycle went to the left and no longer had any torque. After this incident I gave up, but not because of the incident with Taka, because of the one with Fabio. Both of these actions are bad luck. »

“It’s a racing incident, there is nothing to add” – Fabio Quartararo 

For his part, Quartararo, who had bad luck, leaves Spain now 10 points ahead of his Francesco Bagnaia in the championship. “A lot of riders made a few mistakes and went wide, Marc turned, slipped and I hit the back of his bike,” he recalls. It stopped there. My leg hurts, burns, because the suit opened and I scraped against the ground, but it's okay, considering the fall I'm doing well. Unfortunately, we couldn't do anything, but that's how it is. There's no point thinking about the championship in a situation where, anyway, we score zero points. It's painful, but that's how it is. I just got out of the clinic, but he has no reason to come see me. It's a racing incident, there is nothing to add. »

A scary moment for @ takanakagami30 after contact with @marcmarquez93!! 😮

Credit to those behind that did so well to avoid Taka and his bike! 👏#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/sLgaKob6St

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 18, 2022

And as if that wasn't enough, when returning to his scooter box behind a marshal, the world champion was the victim of another accident: "After the fall the marshal hit another scooter and I fell, rather quickly, he adds. Luckily I hadn't taken off the helmet. The commissioner looked behind him, collided head-on with another scooter at 50 km/h, but I got nothing. »

Zarco in the front row

Johann Zarco, for his part, witnessed the first collision and he believes that Marquez has his share of responsibility. “(…) Fabio was surprised by Marc’s trajectory, because he came out of turn 3 better,” confides Zarco. Marc went to the right to prepare for the next turn. It was a big fall. I had to slow down so as not to hit Fabio and his bike, and then I immediately saw Fabio's fairing part in Marc's bike. I then saw the incident with Nakagami when I returned to the box, he could have taken away several drivers. »

And added: “I think Marc exaggerated a little, I like his style and it's one of the strongest, but maneuvers like this in the race... After the contact with Fabio, when he feels that he has this problem on the bike, maybe it was too much. I don't like to say this, because I love Marc, but today he went beyond the limit that we have now. 

The protagonists of the premier category will meet in a few days in Motegi for the Japanese GP. It’s a safe bet that these clashes will cause a lot of ink to flow…