JEREZ, Spain – Marc Marquez wrapped up the second day of the final MotoGP test of the year Tuesday at Circuito de Jerez by topping the charts.
With the forecast looking bleak, Marquez was among the first riders on track. He quickly put down a fast lap at 1:37.820, which ended up being the fastest lap of the day and second overall to the time put down Monday by Maverick Vinales.
“Theses two days were very positive for us, working with the 2020 items we have and trying to find the right direction,” Marquez said. “On the first day we tried a lot of things and then today we started with the best of what we found yesterday. Unfortunately, we only did 20 laps before the rain came. It wasn’t wet enough to properly test in the wet and it certainly wasn’t dry. Now it’s time for the staff in HRC Japan to analyze everything.”
Marquez’s attention now turns to an operation on Nov. 27 at Barcelona’s Hospital Universitari Dexeus-Quiron. The Repsol Honda Team rider has elected to have an operation on his right shoulder as a preventative measure after medical consultation. The operation will be similar to the one performed on his left shoulder at the end of 2018.
“This winter I would have liked to have a nice holiday and enjoy a bit of quiet time after a great 2019 – but it is time to have surgery on the right shoulder,” Marquez said. “As everyone knows, last winter was very tough for me with the operation on the left shoulder, which was very, very damaged. I want to avoid the situation where my right shoulder is in this condition in the future so I spoke a lot with the doctors to see what our options were. Before Motegi I had some issues with the shoulder and then after the crash in Malaysia I had a subluxation.
“Here at the test I had another subluxation after the crash, so we decided with the doctors that it was best to have the surgery to avoid the situation we had with the other shoulder. It will take more or less the same time and we will work in the same way to arrive at the Malaysia test as strong as possible.”
Team Suzuki Ecstar continued to show speed during the test, with Alex Rins and Joan Mir going second and third fastest on Tuesday. Vinales was fourth fastest Tuesday after setting the fastest overall lap of the test on Monday. Fabio Quartararo was fifth fastest for Petronas Yamaha SRT.