Seven-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez will seek to narrow the gap on championship leader Marco Bezzecchi at Brno this weekend with a boost from a mighty comeback to racing.
The 33-year-old Spaniard on a Ducati sat out two Grand Prix in May with a broken foot, but he returned in style with a race-spint double at the Balaton Park circuit in Hungary in early June.
He capitalised on an early crash as championship runner-up Jorge Martin on an Aprilia had taken out his teammate Bezzecchi and three other riders in the first corner.
Both Martin and Bezzecchi withdrew and Martin will serve a double long-lap penalty at Brno as a result – a penalty Aprilia Racing head Massimo Rivola said could have been even "stronger and harsher".
Ahead of the Czech MotoGP, Bezzecchi sits atop the overall rankings with 180 points from eight of the season's 22 races, of which he has won four, while Martin in second has managed 160.
Third-placed Fabio Di Giannantonio with 138 points was also involved in the crash, but he rejoined the race and finished 12th.
Marquez in fifth overall has collected 108 points after his 100th MotoGP win in Hungary, which was also the 100th top-class win for Ducati.
"I'm a believer, I try to do my 100 per cent and I need to try. I feel I'm still far from my performance, the way I want to ride, but I'm still fast," Marquez told MotoGP after his first win of the season.
But he admitted the latest injury – on the heels of recurrent problems with a broken arm that plagued him for years – did not allow him to race the way he wants.
"The comeback is still not finished," Marquez said.
"It depends a lot (on) Brno and Assen and then on the summer break. I still need to reach my new 100 per cent... but of course, you know me: if I'm here, it's to fight – every race, every practice."
'CLOSE THE CHAPTER'
Bezzecchi made it clear his motivation had grown following the Balaton Park crash, from which he emerged with bruises.
"What a shame," the 27-year-old Italian wrote in his blog "Simply the Bez".
"I watched the race about ten times — I didn't remember much of it because of the adrenaline, so I had to go back and watch everything from the start. Nice to do, but then you close the chapter and move on."
"Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt, just a few bruises. We'll make up for it at Brno," Bezzecchi added.
Last year, Marquez took a double at Brno, the Czech Republic's second largest city after Prague, beating Bezzecchi in the race for his fourth MotoGP victory there.
Marquez's younger brother Alex, ninth overall, is planning a return at Brno after missing two Grand Prix with a broken collarbone and a "marginal" vertebra fracture following a crash in the Catalan GP in May.
Brno returned to the MotoGP calendar last year after a five-year break due to financial woes and following a revamp of the track that made it much faster.
The MotoGP circus has three races to go before the summer break.