The Return of The King.

[wombat666]

More like 3 weeks now!
With Marc Marquez returning this weekend in Aragon I hope he will manage to make it to PI, despite the possibility of him missing Japan and Malaysia.
He clocked up over 100 laps over the recent 2 day test at Misano, despite some muscle weakness, with Honda trialing a Kalex swing arm which he is likely to race this weekend.
Been a very long time since Honda have looked at an outside component source!!

 

[huub vink]

We will see whether the King manages to remain on his throne the whole race. I have the feeling MM wants more than his Honda can deliver this year....

Cheers,
Huub

 

[Ferry_vO]

The King' should have stayed in his bed today...

 

[huub vink]

The King' should have stayed in his bed today...

I know some people who fully agree! The King obviously thought he had a free ride in the bumper cars

(Perhaps it was the Kalex swing arm he wasn't used to.....)

Cheers,
Huub

 

[wombat666]

I'm reading (and quoting) Tolkien at the present.
Haven't seen the incident yet but Fabio was unlucky as well.
Getting caught up with Marc was unfortunate but having a head on with one of the service scooters was really annoying!
Bugger!

 

[wombat666]

Q)Marc Marquez has taken his first pole position since the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix on a qualifying day at the 2022 event which was disrupted by a major thunderstorm.
The Repsol Honda rider will be joined on the front row by Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco and Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder, while none of the title contenders could do any better than sixth, and the Ducati Lenovo Team’s Jack Miller took seventh after topping a dry Free Practice 1 on the afternoon prior.

Rain lashed Motegi during Moto2 qualifying, which caused the third and final free practice session for the premier class to be abandoned in order to fit in the two sessions which would decide the MotoGP grid.

The track was still wet for Qualifying 2 despite the showers having eased off, and Marquez was second-quickest on a time of 1:55.810s even with a mistake on his second flying lap.
He was first with a 1:55.698s next time through and then set a 1:55.214s inside the final three minutes, but Zarco, who came from Qualifying 1, remained a threat.
The Frenchman improved to a 1:55.422s just before the chequered flag before running wide on his final lap, but then attention turned to Binder.

The South African was faster than Marquez in the first two sectors but ultimately broke the beam in a time of 1:55.537s, missing pole but clinching a career-first front row start.
For Marquez, the pole is his first in 1071 days, before the horror crash at Jerez in 2020, and thus also the first since his latest arm operation in June.(Q

Impressive as Fabio and Paco are down in 9th and 12th respectively, I do hope both will hang back a little at the off and let the race settle over the first few laps.
Motegi is not a place to dump the Bike in the dry OR the wet!