Marc Márquez, the great protagonist of the Portuguese GP at the start of the MotoGP World Championship, underwent emergency surgery upon his arrival in Madrid after suffering a displaced intra-articular fracture of the base of the first metacarpal of the thumb of his right hand during the race of the Sunday. As a result of the injury, Repsol Honda informed through a statement that the rider will not travel with the team to the Argentine GP, which will take place next weekend at Termas de Río Hondo.
After arriving home on Sunday night from the Portimão circuit, the eight-time world champion underwent surgery at the Ruber Internacional Hospital in Madrid with Dr. Ignacio Rober de Oña leading a team made up of Dr. Samuel Antuña and Dr. Andrea García Villanueva. The surgery, which went smoothly, consisted of closed reduction of the fracture and internal fixation of the fracture with two screws.
The 30-year-old driver from Cervera was injured on the third lap of the race, when the rider was unable to stop his Honda after blocking the front end in the third corner and took the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) ahead. and Jorge Martín (Ducati), who also broke a toe on his right foot in the action. The Portuguese, who did not suffer any serious injury, accepted the pilot’s apology, who did not apologize to the other person affected, visibly upset after the collision. “Asking for forgiveness no longer works,” summed up the man from Madrid, who on Monday began his recovery work with the physiotherapist to try to compete in the next test. The incident was penalized by the commissioners with a double long lap – a long lap that loses about two seconds compared to a normal one – that Márquez had to complete, according to the explicit wording, during the Argentine GP race.
Due to a deficiency in the letter, it is clear that, if he returns to the GP of the Americas – which is held in Austin (Texas) on April 16 and where Marc has won seven times – Márquez will no longer have to comply with the penalty imposed. . In recent years, it has been common for the judges of the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) to have defined in which grand prix the punished riders should serve a penalty, so the wording is not new. The view in the paddock, not unanimous, is that missing a race is punishment enough for any competitor. For now, the team and the driver have not specified when he will be able to return to competition, although he is expected in the garage for the United States. Since he fractured his right humerus at the 2020 Spanish GP, where he started his ordeal that forced him to undergo surgery up to four times, the man from Lleida has missed 26 of the 53 World Cup events held since then. The arm, the diplopia and now the thumb have cut short his several returns in the premier class, where he has not won for more than 500 days.
The last victory of the event’s benchmark came in the 2021 Emilia-Romagna GP. The new physical setback is a blow for Márquez, who had left very good feelings on Saturday’s day in Portimão, the first of the new era with races to the sprint in MotoGP. His pole position with a Honda that is not up to par on paper fueled his hunger for victory and allowed him to claim a podium finish in the inaugural test of the new format. The revolution that seeing him in the top positions meant for the championship turned, in the blink of an eye, into a burst of revolutions. His slip with the braking and wheel lock pass was an improper mistake by a pilot with his resume, who fully accepted the seriousness of it. After complying with the sanction, and despite his new setback on the physical plane, he preferred to focus his message on the apology with Oliveira. “I don’t care about Argentina, but Miguel is fine,” he said.
The loss of 93 joins those of Pol Espargaró (GasGas), Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia), who will not be able to compete in the second round of the championship either after being injured on a very eventful opening weekend and which has raised blisters in the paddock. “With four riders in the hospital this weekend, I get the feeling that we are not learning,” Aleix Espargaró, the oldest rider on the grid, noted after the race, disappointed with his colleagues and also with those responsible for safety at Dorna, the organizer of the contest, in the circuits.
