581 Days In The Making: What Victory In Germany Means For Marc Márquez

Calum Gill 16:50 21/06/2021

Marc Márquez's win at the Sachsenring in Sunday's German Grand Prix was a landmark moment for the 6-time premier class champion.

Almost a year on from his arm break in last year's season opener in Jerez, the Spaniard claimed his first victory since the 2019 Valencia Grand Prix, a 581 day gap between taking the chequered flag first. It was heart-warming to watch him let the tears flood on the podium as something of an acknowledgment of what he’s been through in the past 12 months.

Mentally this will be a big boost to Márquez, his crew and Honda. “It’s one of the most important and hardest moments of my career,” he said after the race. “(The final stretch) was hard, was really hard to stay concentrated because all the memories, all the situations during this last year were there on the mind. But yeah, we did it, we will do it again. We’re in a hard situation but we will try to keep the same level.”

Márquez has remarkably kept his run going of being unbeaten at the Sachsenring since 2010. This event had been one that was noted as the best chance for Marquez to get his first win after his comeback, and everyone's estimate turned out to be correct. But the more significant aspect is how the victory was achieved.

“We know Marc on this track is nearly unbeatable,” said KTM’s Mike Leitner, whose in-form rider Miguel Oliveira kept Marquez sweating for much of the race. “But it was one lap, the lap that this rain comes, and this made the gap, and then was very difficult to close it. I think he had to use the tyre harder and nothing was left.” The lap in question was the ninth, although Márquez then eked out his advantage for a couple of more laps afterwards while Oliveira desperately searched for a way past Jack Miller.

“Today, I knew it was a great opportunity, because I’m coming from a hard situation, three zeroes in a row, but I say today is the day,” Márquez recalled. “Before this weekend, I said, okay, I will try to fight for the podium, I will try to be close to the top guys, but the victory was low possibility, but I said ‘if it’s the perfect conditions, I will try’. But when I saw a few drops on the lap four-five, I said ‘it’s my race’. And then in that point I pushed, and I kept the same race pace as before. Even when the second [round of rain] drops started, I pushed even more.”

The thing about post-injury Márquez is, we’ve already seen that his ability when the grip levels plummet have not departed him one bit. At Le Mans, when the grip levels tumbled and then the rain properly arrived, Márquez was completely unmatched, and though he’d highsided from the lead it was at the very least, proof that the pace was still there to be extracted.

And while things may be very different at Assen next weekend, Márquez should still use the mental gain and the feeling of achievement to spur him on for the rest of 2021. A result like we saw in Germany at the weekend has the potential to turn his season on it's head. For the better? We will see.