Marquez quickly up to speed on MotoGP comeback

PORTIMAO: Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez made a remarkable comeback Friday in his first competitive ride since crashing nine months ago when he was third fastest in the opening free practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix.

“Difficult to find a single word to describe the first training session, but I felt a lot of HAPPINESS!!” Marquez wrote in Spanish on his Twitter account.

Marquez fractured his upper right arm when he crashed during the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez in July 2020 in the opening race of last season. He missed the rest of the season and opted not to ride in this season’s opener in Qatar on March 28.

He needed three separate surgeries to finally heal the injury and be ready to race again at this weekend’s race.

On Friday, at Portimao, the Spaniard was unperturbed by complicated conditions on the track which had numerous damp patches. He steadily improved through the session on his Honda to post a time of 1min 42.378ec.

“A moment he has waited a long time for, marcmarquez93 is back on track,” tweeted his Honda team which adopted the hashtag #TheReturn while MotoGP adopted #MarcReturns.

He was 0.251 behind compatriot Maverick Vinales who set the fastest time on his Yamaha.

A third Spaniard, Alex Rins of Suzuki, was second, 0.151sec behind the leader.

Marquez had won the title for four consecutive seasons until he withdrew last year due to the injury. Joan Mir won last year’s title.

Sunday’s race is the third of the season. Johan Zarco leads the standings with 40 points.