This Is The Reason Marquez Failed To Appear At The Andalusian Grand Prix

Marc Marquez (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Repsol Honda manager Alberto Puig revealed the team's decision to withdraw Marc Marquez from the Grand Prix of Andalusia. Puig said they did not want to take the risk of endangering the injured rider's condition.

Defending champion Marquez injured his upper right arm after falling in the MotoGP opener at the same circuit last weekend.

Six days after the crash at the Spanish Grand Prix and four days after surgery, Marquez returned to Jerez and was declared fit and received the green light from the team to take part in training and qualifying sessions on Saturday.

Marquez and the Repsol Honda team took the opportunity to evaluate the extent of the injury and whether the rider was able to ride his bike over the race distance.

"Tomorrow (Sunday, July 26, Red) he will not race. The plan was like this more or less when we decided to do this," Puig said as quoted by Antara.

The Spaniard finished FP3 in 19th position, 1.298 seconds away from the top of the session, and in the last training session he was 0.999 seconds behind Takaaki Nakagami who appeared fastest in FP4.

However, the defending champion had to return early to his garage when he had only undergone one round, without recording a time in the first qualifying round (Q1).

Is that @ marcmarquez93's session over? 🤔The world champion comes straight back in! 👀 # MM93Comeback | #AndaluciaGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/Ranyk0xIlD

- MotoGP ™ 🏁 (@MotoGP) July 25, 2020

The Repsol Honda team after that stated that Marc would not undergo the second series race of the 2020 season.

"In the day, with the heat and the number of laps, it hurts more for him, and we finally decided it was best to stop.

"The plan was to try to a point and that's what we did. And when we got to a point where it was impossible and too risky to continue, we, then decided today," Puig said.

"Marc listens to his body, and not his mind, not his vision. When you guys get injured and the body says 'done', that's over.

Puig has previously emphasized that the team does not want to force the rider to step down, but it is Marquez himself who is ambitious to try to take part in the training and qualifying sessions.

The middle ground, the team decided to drop him in the Saturday session because Friday's training session was not too significant when the race was held on the same circuit where the team could use data from the previous series.

"A true champion always tries, and this is what he does. The courage he has shown is incredible, but we also have 11 races to go, of course we will not give up," said Puig.

"Marc will recover, and the team will be there for him. We will come back and fight."

Marquez has approximately two weeks before the next series at the title in Brno, Czech Republic on August 9.