67 degrees and rising! Marquez's Brno save
Marc Marquez left the MotoGP world open-mouthed with his latest miracle save during Friday practice for the Czech Republic Grand Prix.
The world championship leader - who dislocated his shoulder just a week ago in Austria - lost the front of his RC213V at Turn 13 of the Brno circuit during the afternoon session.
But despite reaching a staggering lean angle of 67.5 degrees the Spaniard somehow got the front tyre to bite again, pulling him upright before nonchalantly turning into the pits.
"The 2014 save was bigger, but this one was very long. This time I leaned 67.5 degrees, last time I leaned 68.3," Marquez confirmed.
"When I lost the front, the first moment you think 'this is a crash'. Because I lost it really quick. Then you see you can keep, keep, keep. And then you start to feel the elbow getting warm!
"Then I was lucky because I can stand the bike a bit - but the front was still closing. So I was there with the knee pushing on the front and I was able to save it.
"I always say you must be lucky to save that, but it's already many times now! So something is there... How I do it, I don't know. But I hope I won't repeat it in the race."
Typically, Marquez returned to lead the session, finishing Friday practice 0.104s ahead of last weekend's winner Andrea Iannone (Ducati) with title rival Jorge Lorenzo in third (+0.137s) for Yamaha.
"In Austria on Friday I finished tenth and I said it's not my real position. Today I was first but it is not my real position," he revealed. "Yeah, I could push and be there for two or three laps. But we must improve on used tyres because it looks like both Yamaha riders can keep a good pace. Also Iannone and Vinales, so we need to work hard for tomorrow.
"We expect that here we would lose less on the acceleration, but we are losing a lot. You can see on the times, all the Hondas. We must improve in some areas. T2 is where you don't need acceleration and we are first, two or three tenths faster. In the other sectors we are losing but we will try to improve on the brake points.
"Tomorrow we'll see if we can take another step forward, especially in terms of race pace, to be able to aim for the podium on Sunday. If we do that, then why shouldn't we target the victory too?"
Marquez also somehow held on to a scary front wheel lockup at Assen this year.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
