With his confidence level diminished by a brutal crash in Round 2 of the MotoGP season, Marc Marquez makes his return from injury to the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, a track on which he has seven wins in eight events. The only MotoGP race Marquez has not won in the history of the United States Grand Prix went to Alex Rins in 2019.
Anyone who has not yet seen the crash of Marquez high siding off his Honda in warmups for the Indonesian Grand Prix will need to shoo the children from the room and brace before clicking on the Twitter link below. Marquez was unable to mount up for that race and missed last week’s Argentina Grand Prix, but his quick return to the bike is a testament to the protective gear used by MotoGP.
Marquez finished fifth in the season opening Grand Prix of Qatar. With 11, he is 34 points out of first with 17 rounds remaining and has a step hill to climb if he wants to repeat his 2019 championship. For this weekend, the most important goal is to regain his comfort on the bike.
A seriously big crash for @marcmarquez93 today
A testament to how good modern protective gear is, we're incredibly happy to see and hear that he's OK! See you in Argentina, Marc! 💪#IndonesianGP 🇮🇩 pic.twitter.com/GKAaOAFauw
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 20, 2022
“I’m happy to be here and to race again – to be fit again, this is important,” Marquez said in a Friday press conference from the track. “It’s true that the confidence is not very high at the moment. I have a good memory of (the crash), but we arrive at a very big moment from a very big crash. A bit injured, but I (am back) from that injury earlier than I expected.
“Step by step. It’s time to rebuild the confidence and time to ride the bike again.”
Marquez beat eventual champion Fabio Quartararo to the line by more than four seconds.
And he has not lost much speed. In the first practice session of the weekend, Marquez posted the fifth fastest lap of 2:04.469, less than half a second off the leader’s pace.
The fastest rider in that session was the only man to beat Marquez at COTA. Rins posted a lap of 02:04.007.
Last week’s Argentina Grand Prix winner, Aleix Esparago is looking forward to the United States Grand Prix to continue his momentum.
“After the victory, on the flight coming to America with my friend, I was thinking that after a long career in the championship – more than half my life in the paddock – I was not able to win,” Esparago said. “After the victory in Argentina, we have to make it memorable, so we got a new tattoo with the date of the victory. I think it’s a very good way to understand how difficult it was so that we will never forget.”
Raúl Fernández won in Moto2, but it was a great day for fifth-place American Cameron Beaubier, who scored the first top-five on his home circuit. He went on to score another top-five two weeks later in Portimão, Portugal.
Joe Roberts was not quite as fortunate in this race last season. He finished 18th, 32 seconds behind the leader.
Last year for Beaubier was up and down. His five top-10s were evenly distributed throughout the season. Roberts scored five of his six top-10s in the first seven rounds before finishing outside the top 15 in three of the final five races.
So far in 2022, Roberts has finished between eighth and 13th. Beaubier’s results are even more closely grouped, between ninth and 12th.
