The first Indian Grand Prix will go down as a classic, and a highlight of the year for Marc Marquez showed the potential of the Honda RC213V as he put in an early podium challenge and impressive recovery.
With a belly full of fire and motivation after a return to the Sprint podium, Marquez shot off the line and immediately hooked himself to the back of the leading trio. As Martin and Bagnaia traded blows, the #93 sensed his opportunity and turned up the pace to stay with them. Unfortunately, at Turn 1 on lap five, Marquez fell but there was no waiting around an in true Marquez style, he remounted within just eight seconds and rejoined in 16th place.
From here, he cut through the field and found himself back inside the top ten by lap 14. Steady progress continued and the eight-time World Champion would take ninth at the flag, a solid result considering the fall.
The entire Repsol Honda Team now head directly to Japan for Honda’s home race at the Motegi circuit.
Marc Márquez, 9th :
“If you just looked at the final result and see ninth you wouldn’t know the whole story of our race – but to achieve what could be considered our ‘normal’ result after a crash is a positive. It was a really small crash but I was pushing very hard to stay in the slip stream of the bikes ahead, I went a bit wide and just fell. I came into this race with the motivation of the Sprint podium, so when I saw Pecco and Martin make a mistake I decided I needed to push. This led to the mistake. The most important thing was finishing the race, overall our rhythm was very close to Quartararo so I think we can be overall happy with what we have done this weekend.”
