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Marc Marquez has taken to racing with modified leathers in order to deal with the pain from his right shoulder.
The six-time MotoGP champion scored his second win in his comeback from injury last time out at the Circuit of The Americas, but is still far from his best.
Marquez remains particularly weak on his right-hand side having badly broken that arm in July 2020, which is affecting his ability to manoeuvre his Repsol Honda.
Despite finishing second three races ago at Aragon, when he made seven attempts to pass Francesco Bagnaia in the final three laps, the Spaniard had Alpinestars change his leathers in order to free up his right shoulder.
“I mean, these modifications are since Aragon, because in Aragon I was struggling a lot,” he explained.
“There was a lot of pain in the shoulder and then when you have pain, everything disturbs you.
“Then with Alpinestars, we make the shoulder a bit bigger to have more mobility and then we keep with that modification, but the correct thing is in the future to come back like the left one.”
Notwithstanding his victory in the Grand Prix of the Americas, Marquez admitted he is still missing the “special feeling” he enjoyed with his Honda.
Also counting against him is that the next two rounds, the second visits of 2021 to Misano this weekend and Portimao a fortnight later, take place at clockwise circuits where turning is thus predominantly to the right.
However, the 28-year-old is hoping to have a better understanding of how he handles such corners, particularly after the Algarve Grand Prix in early-November.
“Of course, in the left circuit corners [anti-clockwise/turning left] always has been my one of my strong points but now with the injury, it’s even bigger, the difference or the feeling in left corners than right corners,” noted Marquez.
“It’s easy to explain; on the left corners, I can turn, I can push with the left hand and use the triceps and turning in a good way, but in the right corners, just I push with the left and then just I have understeering.
“But it’s something that when I try to push with the right hand, I can’t at the moment, but I’m able to ride well.
“It’s true that riding like this is difficult, for that reason I crashed many times – both the front, and I cannot save with the elbow – but we are working on it and we are trying to understand well.
“It’s true that there remain three races [this season] and Misano will be difficult because everybody will ride too fast; I mean [look at] the previous race, test.
“But then last two races will be also interesting for me to understand where I am in the right corners, especially in Portimao.”
Marquez is currently seventh in the championship, despite missing the first two races of the season due to injury.
Practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix starts this Friday evening (AEDT).
