Marquez's Escapes Serious Injury In
Massive Mandalika Crash
A
fter crashing twice in seven
minutes in qualifying for
the Indonesian MotoGP, Marc
Marquez vowed to risk it all for a
good finish on Sunday. He was
true to his word, attacking morn-
ing warm-up with full abandon.
But a massive high-side at
turn seven—taken in fourth
gear—caused the eight-time
champ to bang his head on
landing and a concussion put
him out of the race.
"What can I say? It has not
been our weekend, we have
struggled and had problems
from the start," Marquez said. "It
was a really big crash in warm
up this morning, maybe one of
the biggest I have had. I went
to the local hospital and while
there were no serious problems,
it was decided that I should not
race. It's of course a shame, but
the best decision."
Remarkably, Marquez did not
suffer any other major injuries.
Team boss Alberto Puig was
nonplussed and suggested the
harder Michelin carcass in this
weekend's allocation, which
stripped the Hondas of all their
preseason potential, was at
fault.
"Marc had these three
crashes, and we have to try to
understand why, because his
crash from today was brutal,"
Puig said. "Honestly speaking
we need to analyze. They [Mi-
chelin] brought here a different
tire and we have to understand
everything, and at this moment
it's difficult.
"Finally, he had a massive
crash and we decided it was not
correct under the circumstance
after this concussion in the head
to bring him to the track."
Neil Morrison
IN
THE
WIND
P28
