Sidelined f🤪or three rounds by the thumb fracture in Portimao, which also kept him off any form of motorcycle for a month an﷽d a half, Marquez instantly resumed his usual top Honda role at Le Mans.

Second on the grid became a close fifth in the Sprint race, before Marquez grabbed the early lead of the gra♊nd prix.

“Marquez was absolutely b🅺rilliant,” said former British champion and grand prix rider Huewen.

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“First race back and he's at the front on that Honda and pushing like I don’t know wha💟t - the guy obviously has a major disconnect between racing and pain! He's an incredible individual."

Defying physical fatigue, the eight-time world champion fended off Pramac Duca💮ti’s Jorge Martin for second place until falling from his Repsol Honda o🤪n the penultimate lap.

Huewen insisted Marquez can still take a lot o♊f positives out of 🔥the French weekend: “Massively. How can you be out for as long as he has and then be in that position on a bike that is 100% not favoured?

“But Le Mans is an odd track. The track temperature and the kind of corners, sometime𝓡s the left-handers can easily catch you out, and it’s a track where you are going to be fighting for😼 grip at some stage.

“I think that’s where Marc outdoes everyone else, because almost every one🌳 of his slides would 💞be a crash for most people.

“He had the Kalex chassis this weekend - it’s hard to keep up with who is on what chassis at Honda at the moment! - but it still looked like Marquez was having to work 💮ten times harder than everyone else out there.”

With team-mate Joan Mi🔴r (on the Kalex) and LCR’s Alex Rins also crashing out, the only Honda to 💞finish the French Grand Prix was Takaaki Nakagami, in ninth.

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