MotoGP Assen: Bradl: “Lot of respect for Marc Marquez, I know the weak point of the bike”

HRC test rider Stefan Bradl, called-up to replace the injured Alex Rins at this weekend’s Dutch MotoGP, ‘cannot give riding advice’ to eight-time world champion Marc Marquez.
Marc
Marc

But the German hopes Marquez, who 𝓰suffered five falls at the Sachsenring before withdr🍃awing from the race, will take ‘controllable risk’ at Assen this weekend.

Bradl’s team-mate Takaaki Nakagami was the only Honda rider to make the German Grand Prix grid, with Marquez joining Rin🦹s and Joan Mir on the sidelines.

Rins has undergone a second operation on the complicated leg fracture⛄s he suffered in Mugello today (Thursday).

“I wish a speedy recovery to Alex. I think he's♈ underꦬ the knife more or less right now, so hope everything goes well and he can recover,” said Bradl.

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“We will try to do o♏ur best in the meantime and we all know that the situation is not going to be easy. All we can do is try to stay calm, do our 🌼job and trying to stay healthy.”

On Marquez’s crash-strewn Sachsenring weekend, Bradl said: “A lot of respect because he's🍌 still giving his 100%, even more. Even though he realises that the bike and the tools he has are not ready for that level.

“But he's trying, you know. I hope that he can stay healthy and he's good to ride t🌜his weekend and his approach is going to be the same probably.

“We will not change an eight-time world champion in terms of howꦇ he has to ride the bike. 

"Maybe this circuit is going to be a little bit better, but realistically speaking it's goin🌜g to be hard to fight for the podi🙈um.

“In the meantime, I cannot give him advice, but I would like him to t💃ake🦩 controllable risk.”

While Marquez💛 suffered a range of accidents in Germany, the final (warm-up) incident, which left him with a finger fracture, was a type of highside rarely seen in modern M꧑otoGP.

Br🥂adl said he had worked on electronic changes in a recent test to try and mitigate a repeat but believes the root cause is a chronic lac💛k of rear grip which, like a lack of front-end confidence, will take time to solve.

“I have not been riding the bike since the Monday test in Jerez. So I jumped on the bike in Misano and after 3-4 laps I realised the weaknesses of the bike, that in lean angle we're not feeling con🌠fident at all. We need to push on the front and everything we are doin💧g is not coming natural.

“We have played around with electronics [to help prevent the highsides]… But it's not the electronics, in my opinion, that are holding us back, what we al꧅l need is much more grip on the rear tyre. In all areas."

Bradl added🥃: "I know where is the weak point of the bike and that's how I'm going to ride it. I'm not trying to destroy myself this weekend and it's kind of a surviving time we have right no𒁃w. How long will be this surviving time, I cannot tell you...

“I think it can be fixed and I'm sure also Honda has the powe🎃r and the equipment to do so. But it is a matter of time.

♒“I think we have seen that our performance was not dropping massively in 1-2-3 months𓂃. It was a process over some years I would say and now we will take probably a similar time to get back at a decent level.”

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