Honda without answers after Marquez’s “brutal” Indonesia MotoGP crash
Honda team boss Alberto Puig says Honda has “to try to understand why” Marc Marquez suffered the “brutal” crash which ruled him out of Sunday’s MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix.
The six-time world champion suffered a violent highside in the closing stages of Sunday’s warm-up session at Turn 7 and landed heavily on his right side.
Marquez got his feet dazed and was taken to a local hospital for precautionary checks, where it was found he’d suffered a concussion and was subsequently declared unfit to race.
He struggled all weekend on his RC213V, crashing twice in Q1 and suffering many rear-end moments across the session.
Michelin’s decision to bring a stiffer construction rear tyre to combat Indonesia’s extreme heat caused Honda to have serious rear grip problems, with Pol Espargaro worried he wouldn’t have been able to finish a dry Mandalika GP due to the strain being placed on the front tyre.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s weather-delayed race, Puig told motogp.com: “Marc had these three crashes and we have to try to understand why, because his crash from today was brutal.
“Honestly speaking we need to analyse. They [Michelin] brought here a different tyre and we have to understand everything, and at this moment it’s difficult.
“Our rider crashed and we want to understand, so I don’t think I can give you any precise info.
“Finally, he had a massive crash and we decided it was not correct under the circumstance after this concussion in the head to bring him to the track.”
On what he described as "maybe the biggest" crash he's had, Marquez added:
“What can I say? It has not been our weekend, we have struggled and had problems from the start.
"It was a really big crash in warm-up this morning, maybe one of the biggest I have had.
"I went to the local hospital and while there were no serious problems – it was decided that I should not race. It’s of course a shame, but the best decision."
Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Espargaro ended the wet Indonesian race in 12th and was the top Honda rider across the line.
When asked about Marquez’s crash, Espargaro said it was “lucky” he escaped injury – but that it would have been something caused by “an external partner’s bad choice”.
“Yeah, I mean this was our situation all the weekend,” Espargaro began.
“When we were complaining about Michelin, during all the weekend it’s not because we like to complain about Michelin.
“It’s because we were facing serious problems about front tyre consumption through the race.
“We were not able to finish the race because the consumption on the front tyre was too high, and the rear was locking on the corners to all the riders all the weekend.
“So, when we complain it’s because we feel really that we have a problem and finally from being fast and safe on the test, we were slow and I think today Marc was lucky to not get injured, and if he did get injured this would be a consequence of an external partner’s bad choice this weekend.”
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