Marquez’s Recovery from Broken Right Arm in Spanish GP is Too Good to be True

200728_sagawa-topix_01-1.jpg Columns

*Source of the image in the article: motogp.com

The third round of the MotoGP season in Andalusia was a hotly contested affair, with Quartararo winning his second consecutive race and Rossi scoring his first podium finish in many years.

The high side from the rage

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) was forced to sit out the second race of the season after a high-side crash at the Spanish Grand Prix the week before. He suffered a broken right bicep and was forced to sit out the race. On the same day, Marquez took the lead in the early stages of the race, but a regrettable mistake saw him drop back to the 16th position. With four laps to go he had moved up to third and was closing in on Viñales (Yamaha), who was in second place.

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The video of the crash on motogp.com shows that as soon as the rear tire seemed to touch the curb in the high-speed left-hand corner immediately after turning from right to left, he lost grip and started to slide, high-siding. As soon as his rear tire seemed to touch the curb, he lost grip, slid, and high-sided. The reaction threw him high in the air, and he fell in a parabolic path, hitting the track surface. It was supposed to be rolling out into the escape zone.

The bad luck was that he got tangled up with a machine on the gravel. The video shows the front wheel of the sliding machine hitting Marquez's right arm, which appears to be momentarily wedged between it and the track. Marquez's right arm is hanging down and he is unable to move. It was clear that he had sustained serious damage.

An impact of up to 26G hit Marquez.

According to data from Alpinestars (who supplied Marquez with his leather suit) published on motogp.com, Marquez was hit with a maximum impact of about 25.98G at the moment of impact. This is about 26 times the acceleration of gravity, which is close to the 26.14 G's that Marquez experienced when he crashed in the 15th round in Thailand last October.

Incidentally, the impact of a sudden turn of a fighter jet is 8G, and the impact of a motorcycle crashing into a concrete wall at 40km/h is about 30G.

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The airbag in the leather suit starts to inflate immediately after Marquez is thrown out of the motorcycle, and absorbs the impact when he hits the track about one second later. A further second later, when he made contact with the sliding machine, he was found to have received the maximum G-force impact. There's no such thing as "if" in an accident, but if there had been no contact with the motorcycle, Marquez would have been up and around in no time as usual. In other words, he was lucky not to have been hit in the head or chest.

Successful surgery, try to qualify in 4 days!

I would like to conclude by saying that I expect Marquez to recover as soon as possible, but the great thing about Marquez is that he will not allow that to happen. According to a recent report, Marquez underwent surgery two days after the accident and started training immediately afterwards. Four days later, he qualified for the third round of the season in Andalusia.

In the GP rider class, there are many riders who can ride with a broken collarbone, but Marquez suffered a broken humerus, and it is the right arm that operates the throttle and brakes. The video shows him straddling the motorcycle and sliding into the corner as if nothing had happened.

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In the end, he commented during a practice ride that he felt his elbow had fallen off, and he had no choice but to sit out the race. He must have superhuman resilience and unparalleled mental strength. In the video, he can be seen doing 20 push-ups without a single expression of pain on his face. It's so tough that you want to say, "That's insane!" Incidentally, this is the first time Marquez has missed a fight due to injury since he was promoted to the highest class in 2013.

Mental strength is his greatest weapon.

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After all, MotoGP riders are not ordinary. There is a word that they often use in their interviews, determination. It means "determination" or "willpower". Racing isn't as simple as just the performance of the machine or the technique of the rider to decide the winner. Perhaps, mental strength is Marquez's greatest weapon.

To see the inner workings of these athletes as they compete at the highest level of motorsport is one of the most exciting things about MotoGP. So, on top of all that, I'm looking forward to Marquez's return!

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