Comeback From Right Arm Injury, Marc Marquez Finishes P4 At Japanese Grand Prix

JAKARTA - Repsol Honda team racer Marc Marquez completed his second race since his comeback from injury by finishing P4 at the Japanese Grand Prix, Motegi Circuit, Sunday, September 25.

The eight-time world champion said he no longer had pain in his right arm, which is still recovering from his fourth operation during the 24 laps of the day.

Marquez even appeared sensational by securing his first pole position since the 2019 Japanese GP when he conquered the Motegi wet track on Saturday.

"I'm very happy because this is the first time in a long time that I don't feel pain in my arm," said Marquez, quoted by the official MotoGP website via Antara.

"I feel a little tired, maybe because of the armpump or something, but it doesn't hurt, this is the most important thing."

Marquez, who at the last moment switched to a soft rear tire before the start, failed to get the grip he needed to glide after the red light went out.

Overtaken by Brad Binder at Turn 1, Marquez found his position slumped to P5 after one lap.

Holding down 0.5 seconds behind Miguel Oliveira throughout the race, Marquez had an opening to overtake the KTM rider in the final laps to move up one position to P4.

"In the first lap I had problems, but from the second lap everything was good and I started my race.

"From there I started to feel better, I was in fifth with a good rhythm behind the KTM riders.

"I'm not trying to do anything crazy, just trying to finish the race well, adding more flying hours. This will help me to continue to progress (recovery)."

Marquez also admits that overtaking on the back of a MotoGP bike this season, which is equipped with state-of-the-art aerodynamics and holeshots, is very difficult.

"If you want to overtake, then you have to do a 'block pass' or an aggressive overtake, and from the start I didn't feel ready," said Marquez, who has almost four months without racing to recover after surgery.

Despite missing a number of races, Marquez is still the top Honda rider in the standings with a collection of 73 points in 15th place, beating his team mate Pol Espargaro who is one position below with 47 points.

The MotoGP circus will continue to the Chang International Circuit, Buriram, Thailand next week which will be the last race in a series of triple headers since Aragon.