Marc Marquez will return to MotoGP race action for this weekend’s Grand Prix of the Americas following a “conservative” treatment plan for diplopia over the last few weeks.
His Honda team announced the news of the six-time premier class champions return on Wednesday morning ahead of the Circuit of the Americas sprint, a venue at which Marquez has notched up a total of eight wins in his nine starts at the track so far.
The Spaniard was forced to miss the Indonesian GP last month following a nasty warm-up crash that left him with blurred vision as a result of diplopia, a condition that also meant he had to skip last weekend’s Argentinean GP as he focussed on recovering, a recovery process he crowned by testing a Honda CBR600 road bike at the Alcarras circuit in Spain on Tuesday.
Marquez affirmed that it is a “great feeling” to be able to return to action at one of his “favourite tracks”, though conceded that he has “work to do” in order to get up to speed having missed two consecutive encounters.
“Of course I am very happy to be back, it’s a great feeling to return and especially to do it at one of my favourite tracks,” said Marquez.
“No matter the situation, I really enjoy riding in Texas and have incredible memories there.
“We have some work to do after missing two races and the whole Argentina weekend so I am not here to set one target at the moment.
“There’s many things to do and consider, but the important thing is that we are back on the bike this weekend.”
Marquez enters the Americas GP event with work to do if he is battle for a seventh top-tier title this year having dropped to 15th in the riders standings, leaving him 34 points adrift of current series leader Aleix Espargaro.
Honda meanwhile will be looking to try and improve its positions in the manufacturers and teams points tables, with it currently residing sixth and last of the constructors in the former tally while the Repsol Honda squad sits seventh in the teams after three rounds.