The next day however revealed the risk in the level of riding he was forced to deploy.
“With our bike now, the only way to make the lap time is under braking,” he explained. A time of maximum risk.
Being Marquez, and intermittently superhuman, he usually gets away with it. So it was on the first lap of the season-opening full-length Portuguese GP, briefly in the lead and surviving one out-of-the-saddle moment. On the second lap, with his hard front tyre perhaps not yet fully up to temperature on the way into the first-gear Turn Three right-hander, “I had a little lock-up”.
He slid into a Ducati, punting Jorge Martin off to rejoin at the back, and ricocheted onwards, now out of control. Ahead, early leader and local hero Miguel Oliveira was just wheeling his Aprilia into the corner.
Marc slammed into his right leg, sending both flying. Marc got to his feet, and ran straight over to the stricken Oliveira, clearly injured.
Luckily, his leg was not broken, just massively bruised. Marquez shouldered the blame, and accepted the stewards sanction: two long-lap penalties to be served at the subsequent Argentine GP. “I did a mistake, and I accept the punishment,” he said.