Marc Marquez proved yet again why he is considered one of – if not ‘the’ – greatest MotoGP rider of all time as he shrugged off a huge accident during first free practice for the Thailand MotoGP to almost top second free practice just hours later.
The Spaniard suffered a high-speed high-side during the closing stages of FP1 as he wound up to go for a fast final lap, Marquez losing the rear of the Repsol Honda into Turn 7 and being flicked into the air.
Impacting the ground hard, Marquez was lucky not to be collected by his out-of-control – and heavily damaged – bike as he skidded across the run-off and the gravel.
Gathering himself for a moment, Marquez needed help to get back onto his feet before he was placed on a stretcher and taken to the medical centre. From here, he was transferred to hospital where he underwent an MRI for potential back and leg injuries.
However, after being given the all-clear, Marquez returned to the Buriram track for FP2 and was straight back up to speed, leading the timesheets for the majority of the session and only dropping back to sixth because he chose not to imitate his rivals by taking on a soft rear tyre for the usual final minute flyers.
“I couldn’t breathe for five seconds…” – Marc Marquez
Reflecting on the incident, Marquez played down the potential seriousness of any injuries, pointing out that felt fine once he’d arrived at the medical centre but accepted the need for further check-ups.
Even so, he admits it was a shock to the system given his seemingly infallible ability to ride the Repsol Honda hard without overstepping the limit.
“I had a strange but big crash this morning, and it was a long time without a high-side in MotoGP for me,” he told reporters in Thailand, including Visordown’s sister publication Crash.net.
“Especially it was around five seconds that I couldn't breathe. For that reason, I was there on the floor, in the gravel. And it's only five seconds, but for me it was like twenty seconds there, because it was a big impact.
“And it's true that then, step by step it was coming better and better, and when I arrived in the medical centre, I was already OK. But then of course, I understand that the doctors tried to manage the situation in the best way, in a safe mode, and they preferred to have a deep scan to look at all these things.
“We went to the hospital, but the most important thing is that I'm OK, painful everywhere. But the biggest thing after the crash was that I couldn't breathe, so this was the main problem.
“Of course it changes something. But it's not that I was pushing crazy because it was the out lap.”
Pelvis and knee pain but nothing broken
On the weekend Marquez can wrap up the 2019 MotoGP World Championship title by simply out-scoring Andrea Dovizioso by two points, the Spaniard will be carrying aches and pains into the remainder of the weekend.
“Where I have the most pain is in the back. In the back, when I breathe, I have some pain there. But in FP2 in the first laps I felt something, but then if you just concentrate and forget, then it's OK.
“So yeah I have pain in the pelvis, I have pain on the knee. But the most important is that we had a big scan of the body and there was nothing broken. Just a big contusion, and that's it.”
