Marc Marquez had hoped to leave France with an extended championship lead, but a crash at Turn 7 ended his hopes of keeping a perfect podium record in 2016. After his fall he was able to get back aboard his RC213V and salvage 13th, limiting the damage but unable to stop his slide to second in the championship standings.. The Repsol Honda Team rider is now playing catch up to Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), looking to repeat his 2014 victory in Mugello and recover the lead of the championship. Mugello has always been a difficult track in the premier class for Marquez, his victory the only time he has finished a MotoGP™ World Championship race at the track. The 2015 Italian GP highlighted the issues that Marquez and Honda were having during the start of the season, the Spaniard having to ride beyond the limit.
Improving acceleration remains the main focus for Marquez and Honda, the latter doing all they can back in Japan to improve the engine within the 2016 rules. All of the Honda riders are struggling with similar issues, Marquez the only one able to ride past the issues and challenge for victory. Even with the issues, Marquez feels he can challenge for at least the podium in Mugello.
Marc Marquez: "I look forward to the next two races: we need to focus and concentrate on Mugello and Montmeló which are two very different tracks from both Jerez and Le Mans. They require more corner speed and if two years ago I would have said that they were demanding tracks for us now I think that maybe they can be better. We have work to do but I believe that if we improve the acceleration, our bike is one of the best out there. Not easy to get it due to the actual rules that prevent us from working on the engine, but I know that Honda is working hard on every other area of the bike and I believe in them, so we remain positive and in Mugello we will go with the podium as a target but we will see how the situation will shape up and in case we will try to get the most the conditions will allow us to."