“I came to Austin to compete, not to make some laps,” Marc Marquez ready to make a statement in COTA

“I came to Austin to compete, not to make some laps,” Marc Marquez ready to make a statement in COTA

Marc Marquez

To much dismay of all the MotoGP fans, 8-time World Champion Marc Marquez made his comeback at the free practice session at COTA on Friday. While most would imagine Marquez to test the waters at first before jumping right into the race with his competitors, Marquez made it clear that he has come back to compete, not just to run a few laps.

Marquez’s misfortune started at the 2020 Jerez opener when he suffered a fracture to his right arm. Disregarding the seriousness of the injury, he tried to go back into the race next weekend but his condition worsened further, and he had no choice but to withdraw. There was also some infection in the affected area, due to which he could not return to the race track until April of 2021 when he made a comeback in Portimao. Within a few weeks, the Spanish MotoGP Superstar was back in his old form only to withdraw from the competition once again.

This time, it was caused due to an enduro training accident which led to Marquez suffering from diplopia or double vision. Marquez again came back during the test session at Sepang in Malaysia where he went down with another bout of diplopia.

Marc Marquez is back at COTA after succumbing to several injuries

Marc Marquez
Marc Marquez

After Marc Marquez suffered an episode of diplopia in Malaysia, he went for a three-week-long recovery period and is now back to racing. He reckons he is much better now and wishes to give a good chase to his rivals. On Friday, Marquez focused on regaining his confidence while riding the all-new 2022 bike.

“Today was difficult to start, but I tried to start in an aggressive way. It was the best way to forget the past, to forget the crash and the last two weeks,” said Marc Marquez. “I tried to relax, to ride well and we didn’t try to touch the bike.”

Nonetheless, Marquez’s skills shone through as he came up at the top of the charts in fifth and sixth positions in FP1 and FP2 respectively. COTA is one of the circuits where Marc Marquez has won on seven different occasions, so this result did not come as a surprise to his fans.

“I came to Austin to compete, not to make some laps.”, Marc is reported to have said. “To compete well you need to work like always: on the set-up and all these things.”

So, Marc Marquez is back on track and all other Championship contenders should better watch out for him. During the same practice sessions, Ducati’s Jack Miller managed to impress with a brilliant P1 position after Argentina’s disappointing race.

Read More: “We are back on the bike this weekend,” Marc Marquez announces return to MotoGP action in Austin