Marc Marquez will miss the Andalucian grand prix at Jerez on Sunday after deciding to pull out of qualifying early on due to continuing struggles with his broken arm.
The world champion attempted to take part in the Andalucian GP weekend despite only undergoing surgery for a broken humerus in his right arm sustained during last weekend’s Spanish GP on Tuesday, the Honda man missing Friday running at Jerez before heading out for FP3 on Saturday morning.
Despite showing impressive speed in both FP3 and FP4-managing a time just a second down on the session leading benchmarks-he failed to string together more than seven consecutive laps, meaning getting to the end of a 25 lap run in Sunday’s Andalucian GP looked ever tougher.
He then decided to pull out of Q1 early on Saturday afternoon, Marquez completing just a single installation lap before pulling back into the pits and heading back to his truck.
The Honda MotoGP squad quickly released a Twitter statement confirming Marquez would not return to Q1, before announcing shortly after the end of qualifying that he would skip the race.
Marquez will now switch his focus to recovering sufficiently to be able to compete in the Czech GP at Brno in two weeks time, a target initially earmarked following his arm surgery by MotoGP doctor Xavier Mir.
Marquez’s withdrawal means Honda will be represented solely by Marc’s younger brother Alex, who will take the start from a lowly 21st after crashing out in the dying moments of Q1.
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