Marc Marquez hopes to spend more time training on a motorcycle during this MotoGP summer break as he continues to recover from last year’s Jerez crash.
The six-time premier class world champion missed the first two rounds of 2021 after the spill in the 2020 season-opener, and is yet to regain all of the strength in his right-hand side.
He has also been restricted by doctors in how much time he can spend on bikes between MotoGP rounds, but hopes that will change over the five-week summer break.
However, that is also the time for some rest after Marquez underwent surgery on one shoulder and then the other before the 2019 and 2020 seasons, followed by the three operations triggered by the fracture last year.
“Yeah, of course now on the summer break we will have time for everything,” said the Repsol Honda rider at the Dutch TT, before the season went on recess.
“I mean, first of all I need to take a rest, minimum one-week-and-a-half to two because I feel I need it on the physical side, but also on the mental side – especially more on the mental side than physical side.
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“I mean, I need to take a rest. I start with the shoulder surgery, then when I was OK, I had the arm surgery.
“It’s two years without a holiday and I need a holiday right now. Then I will have time to keep working.
“My plan if the arm permits, I would like to ride more with the motorbike because at the moment I just go race by race.
“My plan is to try to ride more days before Austria GPs and introduce a lot of bikes into my physical training.”
While Marquez has struggled physically, Honda in general has had a tough time of the 2021 season to date.
However, #93 scored a first victory since 2019 in the German Grand Prix, where the Sachsenring’s anti-clockwise layout meant his physical condition was not nearly so much of a hindrance.
He then rode from 20th on the grid to seventh at Assen, where the Japanese marque had introduced a new chassis which actually ‘worked’.
According to Marquez, that has lifted spirits at Honda Racing Corporation.
“Of course, HRC is working, also I am very happy with them because [at Assen] we received the first item that is more or less different and works this year, which is the new chassis and I raced with that chassis and it was some improvement in some parts,” said the Spaniard.
“So, I’m happy with them and this gives us motivation, especially to the engineers because if you give many things but they never work, it’s easy to be upset.
“But now it looks like we found something, and we need to take it and try to use it for the future.”
The summer break ends on August 6-8 with the first of two rounds at Austria’s Red Bull Ring in as many weekends, namely the Styrian Grand Prix.
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