Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez rode in both of today’s Jerez free practice sessions without using painkillers and hopes to do the same tomorrow but is waiting to see how his injured finger holds up overnight.
The Repsol Honda man managed to set the third fastest time today in Spain and says that mid-corner, his broken left pinkie isn’t causing any difficulties but under braking and acceleration it is painful.
Marquez is now waiting to see what shape he is in tomorrow as after stressing the injury, he will not know until the morning whether it will be better or worse. He only wants to ride with painkillers on Sunday if possible.
“In the corner it is not a big problem because here I am lucky there are many right corners. In the left corners, yes it is painful but I am able to manage well but the question mark is tomorrow if it will be better or worse,” said Marquez, speaking at Jerez.
“Sometimes when you push the injury, the next day it is even worse or sometimes better so this is the question mark but the good thing is I feel well on the bike and we can still improve the setup.
“I am trying to manage where I push and when as I don’t want to stress too much the finger as it will be a problem on Sunday. At the moment, I do not do many laps but the laptime is coming. In the third run it was painful, especially in the brake and acceleration but mid-corner was OK.
“If it possible, I would like to only use painkillers on Sunday. Today I rode without painkiller and I want to do the same tomorrow. At the moment, the target is just to see how the finger is tomorrow. Here is 28 laps, we didn’t make all the laps with the tyres, not the race distance, so after qualifying, we will see where we are.”
