Call The Mandalika MotoGP The Worst Race, Marquez: Now Is The Time To Build Confidence

Marc Marquez (Instagram @marcmarquez93)

JAKARTA - Marc Marquez has the opportunity to win his eighth time at the United States Grand Prix this weekend. However, the Spaniard wants to restore his confidence in bulldozing the track following the injury he suffered in Mandalika.

Earlier this week, the Repsol Honda rider received the green light from the team doctors to return to racing after recovering from diplopia or a 'relapse' double vision injury after he crashed in the warm-up session for the Indonesian GP.

"Obviously after Mandalika it was a tough week, but fortunately for me the visual injury was lighter than the previous one," Marquez said at the pre-race press conference session at the Circuit of the Americas, Thursday local time, citing Antara.

Marquez, who also suffered from diplopia at the end of last season due to an accident during motocross practice, came close to dropping in Argentina but admitted he had no motivation to take risks in the race and chose to continue with his recovery and training at home after consulting his doctor.

Marquez also admitted that he did not really remember how he experienced a highside and bounced off his motorbike while driving at Mandalika.

"Actually, I don't remember much. I remember more from looking at pictures than my own memory. The Indonesian GP was the worst GP of my career. I had too many accidents, and some of them I didn't understand.

"That's over and it's time to build confidence and rebuild the process."

"What happened that week was tough, but the next week was tougher. But lucky for me, I'm here and that's positive."

Marquez won seven times at Austin from 2013 to 2018 but crashed in 2019 while leading the race, before returning to the top of the podium in 2021.

When asked if he arrived in Austin to win, Marquez replied, "It's possible, but not this weekend's approach."

"We came from the Indonesian GP where I had a hard time, I crashed a lot and had a bad highside. I just started training again a few days ago so that wasn't the approach for this weekend.

"Just trying to build confidence and we'll see.