The live coverage of the sprint race at Le Mans concludes here. We return tomorrow with the Moto3 (11:00), Moto2 (12:15), and MotoGP (14:00) events. Thank you for joining us—see you then!
Marc Márquez will miss the remainder of the French Grand Prix as well as the upcoming Catalan Grand Prix. He explained, “I knew a crash could come at any moment, and the consequence was that I broke the fifth metacarpal. I already had surgery scheduled for my right shoulder after Catalonia. This season I’ve been having more problems than usual; it was visible. I tried to convince myself, but after Jerez, I saw something wasn’t working and I wasn’t riding well. I went to the doctors, and they saw that after the Indonesia crash, everything was fine, but the famous shoulder screw is in a different position. I had a strange feeling because I was fine at home, but coming here it went wrong, and I thought I was blocked. They saw that in the MotoGP riding position, it touched the radial nerve, causing me to fail, be inconsistent, and have unexpected crashes. We’ll do everything at once; I need to recover well and then build my future from there. The shoulder issue, though it seems like a long timeline, is simply opening and removing the screw, so if there are no complications, the recovery period should be short. The intention was to do it after Montmeló and skip the test; with the foot issue, I also need surgery. Competing like this is not the right way; I can be fast because my mind works fast and I know how to do it—as seen this morning—but I can’t be consistent, because if there’s a nerve problem, it fails when you least expect it. Yesterday I failed on the fast lap, today in the change of direction; I did it slower and touched the white line. The doctors were positive and at least found the problem. I was doing motocross and was fine, but on a speed bike, it irritated the nerve, and it got worse with every race. The bike is good, so I insisted it was me, but I didn’t want to give explanations.”
Another perspective on Marc Márquez’s crash during the sprint race. He has been taken to the medical center to assess a possible injury to his right foot. It remains to be seen whether the rider from Lleida will be able to start in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
“I always prepare my starting strategy very well. I visualize a lot what I want to do, although many things can happen afterward because you depend a lot on what the rest will do, but I was prepared for any decision. I started very well, better than I thought, and when you go forward you have more decision power than if you start badly. I kept entering and expected to be third or fourth, not first at the first corner. I wasn’t aware of my pace with the hard front tire; I was on cloud, in ‘flow’ mode, not thinking, just riding.”
This is the final classification of the sprint race at Le Mans, with victory for Jorge Martín.
Marc Márquez took off his racing suit and got off the motorhome without putting weight on his right foot. We’ll have to see the extent of a possible injury in that area.
Davide Tardozzi and Gigi Dall’Igna approached the place where Marc Márquez is being examined to find out how the ’93’ is doing after his hard crash in the final moments of the sprint race.
“I love this track; today I struggled in qualifying, but I knew my potential was much higher. Simply, I put all my determination into the start and I didn’t expect to be second at curve 1, but from there I pushed like in the past, as I’m used to. Thank you very much, and onward to tomorrow. It’s better than Jerez, and the pace was very good, so I’m happy. We still lack something compared to Aprilia, but we are improving, so we’ll continue.”