Marc Marquez has revealed how advice from GP legend Mick Doohan helped bring him back to the top step of the podium in German MotoGP, his first win since returning from a long injury break.
With a win record at the Sachsenring spanning a decade – including Moto2 and 125GP – Marquez would ordinarily have been seen as a real head-turner to win in 2021.
With his recovery from the arm injury that excluded him from the 2020 season, continuing to handicap him in 2021 and being saddled with a Honda RC213V package that has lost ground to Ducati, Yamaha and KTM, it seemed to Marquez ‘incredible winning streak on German soil was destined for the end.
On the subject of matching items
Nonetheless, when it came down to it, Marquez’s experience showed the importance of an aggressive start to the race that put him in the lead before a critical boost during a brief drizzle turned out to be an advantage that would ultimately prevent him that a storming Miguel Oliveira overtakes the flag.
His and Repsol Honda’s first win since Valencia 2019, Marquez’s success comes at a right time that eases pressure on the team in the face of obvious frustrations with the direction of development of the RC213V.
For Marquez, victory tastes good – his 57th birthday.
However, Marquez says that while largely hiding comments from elsewhere, it was a phone call from Honda legend Mick Doohan that stuck with him, namely the Australian’s own battle to win five GP titles after potentially had ended his career.
“When I’ve been injured, I always feel like I’ll come back and I’ll come back strong,” he was quoted as saying by Crash.net. “But since I’ve ridden the MotoGP bike in Portimao for the first time, I’ve been saying ‘Okay, I’ ‘am far, very far from my level.
“From then on it was very tough. The next races were even tougher. It’s difficult, but I just forget everything and concentrate on my personal and professional side. When I say forget everything, I mean additional comments, external comments .
“I just listen to people who want to help me and try to find something or a few comments that helped me – that was a phone call from Mick Doohan. I met him (with) in Mugello and I know he had a similar situation in 92 and 93.
“I spoke to him on the phone for 30 minutes and just listened, he spoke everything. He explained his situation, but also explained my situation.
“It was exactly the same problems as understanding the bike, not riding the way you want it, stupid mistakes, stupid falls, in some races you will be fast, in practice you will be slower and you don’t know why, and all the problems I’ve had this year – he explained and had in the past. ”
Doohan suffered serious leg injuries in an accident during the 1992 Dutch TT in Assen, which, along with medical complications, resulted in an amputation. However, Doohan made a notable return to racing later that year before winning five titles between 1994 and 1998.