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The Marquez incident in the first race of the year at Jerez brought an end to what could have been (and the conditional is more obligatory than ever) his absolute masterpiece, a comeback that left us breathless. Even without looking at the timesheets, it was clear to anyone that Marc's pace was miles better than that of all his opponents, but having a look at the numbers in detail, this fact becomes even more striking.
Many people think that the Honda champion is an extra-terrestrial and actually last Sunday he was simply from another planet.
In the table below you can find a comparison between winner Quartararo’s and Marquez’s race.
First of all, Marc, before the crash, in 21 laps was slower than Fabio only in 4, also counting the lap when he made his error at turn 4 and the next one. Since he started his comeback, therefore, only once was he slower than the Frenchman, on lap 9. All this, of course, while wasting time in overtaking, if we can say so, considering that the world champion scythed his way through his opponents as if he were in a level-1 videogame.
While this may not come as too much of a surprise when it comes to the mid-field runners, confirmation of his superiority came in his final laps in which Marc had to deal with the ones who were fighting for the podium, and whom he passed without difficulty (with the exception of Miller, who at least tried to offer some resistance).
Another interesting fact can be gleaned from the list of fastest laps in the race. Marc obtained his best on lap 11, while Vinales set his on lap 2 (but with Rossi he was the only one to mount the soft tyre on the front), Quartararo on lap 3, Miller on lap 4, Dovizioso on lap 8 (all these on the same tyres as the Honda rider). Only Binder made his fastest on lap 11, Lecuona on the 14th and Alex Marquez on the 18th, but we are talking about rookies in their first race, without the necessary experience to make the most of the tyres.
Before rescuing himself from a crash, Marquez was in the lead with a second and a half advantage over Quartararo, the biggest gap on lap 6 by almost 8 and a half seconds, while before crashing it was less than 5 and a half. In his comeback, therefore, Marc recovered just over 3 seconds on Quartararo in 15 laps.
Fabio said he never had any concerns about Marquez's comeback, and he could afford not to be given the advantage he could count on but Marc was clearly faster than him. Without the mistake on lap 4, the supremacy of Honda’s Spanish champion would have been unrivalled.
It is therefore not rocket science to say that with this injury Marquez lost 50 easy points. If the injury had been less serious, the Spaniard, even at half-strength, could certainly have scored points next Sunday, but if stands stiff in a poor man’s pocket….
