Marc Marquez put Honda in the spotlight to explain his “strange” accident during the second free practice session for the Dutch TT at Assen and said that only he and his teammates seem to be suffering from these particular problems.
The Spaniard miraculously moved away from the massive shunt caused when the rear of the RC213V kicked out before biting down with the handle and hurling it the other way into a high side that resulted in a severe impact with the asphalt .
It is noteworthy that Marquez recently only got back into action after a ten month hiatus with arm and shoulder injuries and returned to the track this morning for FP3.
On the subject of matching items
Crucially, however, Marquez doesn’t believe the problems originated from him and instead a mechanical problem is responsible.
“It is true that it was a strange fall because I didn’t feel out of the limit,” he said. “I drove like the morning to find my way and the way we drive stops the electronics but for some reason it wasn’t there.
“I switched a gear, the stern started to slide and then I had the high side. We need to understand why because only Honda riders have these issues, which means we need to improve in this area because it’s impossible to take confidence and push again. “
Additionally, he says it could be an endemic problem with Honda entries in particular, and points to his own incident in Jerez last year and that of his teammates as examples of the accidents resulting from a design flaw.
“It does not help [for confidence] because if you brake too late or lean too much, you can understand it, but if you drive well and suddenly start to slide, I lose a lot of self-confidence.
“We have to understand why I had my crash in Jerez 2020, here, Pol Highsider in Portimao, my brother too … it’s something we have to understand because it is impossible to drive to the limit.”