Alex Marquez “more ready” to complete Dutch MotoGP after shortened Czech weekend

After pulling out of the Czech MotoGP last weekend (19–21 June), Alex Marquez says he is “more ready” to complete this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Marquez was declared fit last Thursday to compete in the Czech MotoGP and was reasonably competitive in all three practice sessions as well as qualifying, even if nothing like the kind of form that he has come to expect from himself in his initial return from the injuries he sustained in Catalunya.

However, he withdrew from the weekend after qualifying and didn’t take part in either the Sprint or grand prix.

The Gresini Racing rider will make a second go of lining up this weekend in the Netherlands, and he is more confident this time of being able to get to the end of the event.

“Mentally better, you know,” Alex Marquez said of his condition ahead of the Dutch MotoGP.
“I take out the doubts that I had in Brno and here I think physically to make a step in five days– it's not that I will be 100 per cent.

“We are here as part of the recovery again, but I feel more ready and I feel that my goal is to make the complete weekend, this is my goal. 

“Five days, also the bones improve a lot, this is true. Muscles, no, but the bones, yes, and I can take a little bit more risk. 

“So it's just that, listening to the body. But my goal is to make all the complete weekend.”

Marquez added that the doubts he had about his return before Brno were about his mind more than his body after such a big crash in Barcelona.

“My 100 per cent doubt [before Brno] was on the mind, to see me on track and to see if I was able to be fast, but also to feel free and not have any fear,” he explained.

“So, I was there, I was feeling good – not like normal, like after when we arrive to Sepang, the first run, I feel a little bit like this, but later better and better. 

“I think I'm ready. My goal to come back in Brno is because my goal is to be there to see if I was able to be here [Assen] because physically here is quite demanding. So, I was seeing that was possible and for that reason I'm also here.”

Although he feels better now than before the Czech Grand Prix, Marquez will still have to conserve energy through the weekend at Assen, especially on Friday afternoon in the one-hour Practice session, one that could be reduced in length from 2027, as Marquez says.

“It's quite important, especially tomorrow will be so hot and the Practice for me is too long,” he said. “One hour is for nothing. I think next year will be 45 minutes or is what the people are thinking.

“In that Practice is when I need to save more energy because the rest I think I will have zero problems. Just the Practice one is the one that I'm more worried about.”

Between last weekend and this the key change in MotoGP is the banning of the front start devices from Assen onwards to try to improve safety. Marquez was in favour of the move but added that he thinks there will be "many strange starts" as riders get used to being without the devices.

"Good, because it's for safety," said Marquez.

"From my personal opinion, I would do it before, because from the riders also we saw that that was a big problem and create many problems in the first corners during all this year. 

"But it's like it is, and I think now it's like this and will be interesting, because I think now everybody will start more or less the same, you know, with the same time and everything. 

"Now that we change and we need to change a lot the strategy from the start and everything, clutch and everything, I think we'll see many strange starts, I think."