Marc Marquez finishes Austrian MotoGP - his first completed race of this year
The Repsol Honda star has endured a tumultuous 2023 full of crashes and injuries and, heading into the Red Bull Ring this weekend, had failed to complete a single grand prix all year.
But in Austria, the 10th round of the MotoGP season, Marquez completed an incident-free ride to restore some confidence.
He scored points on a Sunday for the first time since the 2022 Malaysian MotoGP.
The same cannot be said for his teammate Joan Mir, though.
He crashed out in Austria, and has not completed a grand prix since the opening weekend at Portimao.
It means Honda’s factory duo, in 20 available attempts, have finished just one Sunday race each this season.
Mir’s misery had even extended to contemplating retirement, aged just 25, during the summer break.
Marquez returned at Silverstone stating that he would dedicate the remainder of 2023 to rebuilding his confidence, and developing a bike to compete next year.
His weekend in Austria, which featured new aerodynamics, seemed dedicated to that methodology.
Marquez is 19th in the MotoGP standings with 19 points (he had scored some in sprint races previously).
Mir is 26th in the standings, with five points, the lowest of any full-time rider.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
