Marquez has 'nothing to regret', advantage 'growing year after year'

Repsol Honda team manager Alberto Puig says injured MotoGP champion Marc Marquez should have no regrets over Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix and that his advantage over the opposition is 'still growing year-by-year'

Starting his quest for a seventh premier-class title, Marquez moved into an early race lead at Jerez and was pushing hard to escape when he saved a massive front-end slide, causing him to run off-track.

"The strategy was to make a good start when the lights went out and try to go on to lead the race from the front. This is what was happening until Marc had a moment and had to run off track early in the race," Puig said.

"When Marc ran off track it took him two laps to get his concentration back again. But we saw he was going to catch the riders ahead. If there were 4 or 5 more laps he could have caught [race winner] Quartararo as Marc was a second a lap faster.

"We know what type of rider we have. Today, once again, he showed who he is to everyone."

After losing almost ten-seconds, Marquez charged all the way from 19th to 3rd, just behind Maverick Vinales, only to be thrown into a huge highside at Turn 3 in the closing stages of the grand prix.

Disappointment turned to disaster when the bouncing bike struck his right arm, causing a fracture that will require surgery on Tuesday.

"Now he is unfortunately injured, and he has to take rest, try to fix his arm and when he is ready, he will return to fight for victory again," Puig said. "These things happen when you are Marc Márquez, he does exceptional things. There is nothing for him to regret, only to show once again that all our team has tremendous respect and admiration for what he does."

The injury is set to rule Marquez out of this weekend's second Jerez event, thus meaning he will have surrendered a potential 50 points in an already shortened title chase.

Although not speculating on when the #93 might return, Puig warned that Marquez's speed advantage over his rivals is 'still growing year-by-year' despite pre-season concerns over the handling of the latest RC213V.

"Now we are facing the challenge of Marc’s injury, but this is racing, we are a strong team and somehow, we will overcome," Puig said.

"When you have an injured rider almost nothing is positive. But on the other hand, everyone saw and understood the level of Marc today.

"In Qatar [test] some people [had] doubts about Marc’s performance. Today it’s more than clear that there is no question mark about this. His package, Honda RC213V and himself, are clearly two steps ahead.

"He was not just a bit quicker, he was much faster than anyone else. And the difference; like it or not, is still growing year after year."

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow will also undergo surgery in Barcelona tomorrow, for a fracture to his scaphoid bone in a warm-up fall. Suzuki's Alex Rins is the third rider currently injured, after dislocating his shoulder in qualifying.