Bradl: “Lot of respect for Marc Marquez, I know the weak point of the bike”
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But the German hopes Marquez, who suffered five falls at the Sachsenring before withdrawing 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 Rins and Joan Mir on the sidelines.Rins has undergone a second operation on the complicated leg fractures he suffered in Mugello today (Thursday).“I wish a speedy recovery to Alex. I think he’s under the knife more or less right now, so hope everything goes well and he can recover,” said Bradl.New Tracks for 2024? Your Questions Answered | MotoGP Podcast Episode 91Video of New Tracks for 2024? Your Questions Answered | MotoGP Podcast Episode 91Ducati ‘impressive’ but KTM ‘strong’, Japanese ‘did something wrong’Nakagami: “Most difficult moment for Marc and for us”Lecuona replaces injured Mir; but Marc Marquez confirms Assen return“We will try to do our 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 -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 this weekend and his approach is going to be the same probably.Related Change of status for Friday MotoGP practice? Oliveira in favour Vinales relieved by engine failure analysis: “Luckily the engine broke”“We will not change an eight-time world champion in terms of how he has to ride the bike. “Maybe this circuit is going to be a little bit better, but realistically speaking it’s going to be hard to fight for the podium.“In the meantime, I cannot give him advice, but I would like him to take 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 MotoGP.Bradl 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 lack 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 confident at all. We need to push on the front and everything we are doing 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 all 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 now. 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 power 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 months. 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.””4
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