Marquez Endures Nightmare Mugello

Marc Marquez's Italian Grand Prix weekend will be one he'll want to forget very quickly. The Spaniard was knocked out of QP1 and was forced to start from 13th. Warm-up didn't indicate much in the way of progress as he could only manage 9th. He made a blinding start in the race however and was up to 2nd by the start of lap four. But, as was the case in France, the front tyre gave way and the reigning world champion was sent into the kitty litter at turn three in the final few laps.

“It was a shame about the crash today, because I had already done the hardest part! I'm happy because I was able to carry out our plan, which was to recover positions on the first five laps. We were up into second place after four laps, but when the tyre grip went down we had a similar problem to before, with the tyre sliding on corner entry. I was on the limit and when you are pushing at the maximum sometimes things happen like they did today.”

Honda tested the old and new swingarms on all four factory bikes during practice in a bid to look for rear stability. The problems of the RC213V were very evident when watching Marquez in qualifying, as he botched up his first flying lap, losing the rear and running wide at turn one. This was visible during the race as well, the main problem being the Honda's power. He says that there is too much power and too much torque, and the bike's aggressive engine braking is disallowing him to push the front as he'd like.

Marc's woes have seen him slip to 5th in the standings with a 49-point deficit to championship leader Valentino Rossi. HRC need to pull a rabbit out of the hat if they are to recover lost ground, and with Yamaha looking so strong, as well as Ducati's resurgence, they need a fix now.

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