Marc Marquez says he has to “work double” on his physical fitness to remain competitive in🐷 MotoGP following his serious arm break in 2020.

The eight-time wℱorld champion’s career was put into jeopardy when he badly brok⛦e his right arm at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix, which required three operations and forced him to miss the entire campaign.

When he returned to racing in 2021, he still struggled with his arm as the bone was over 30 degree🤪s out of rotation - necessitating a fourth major surgery in 2022.

While the arm now seem🔯ingly causes him no issues on the bike, Marquez says he has to work much harder on his physical fitness than he did when he won his six MotoGP world titles between🐼 2013 and 2019.

“Now it’s harder [to be comওpetitive],” Marquez said after his second grand♒ prix victory of 2024 at the San Marino GP.

“Of course until 2019, 2020,🍎 I have been super-fast, super strong. I can sa🎀y I was working less at home, everything was easier.

“Now, after all what happened in my life and especially my body, I need to work 💎double, I need to be more often on the physioꩲ, more maintenance.

“But it’s the way to do if I want to continue in the top l🐟🎐evel.

“So, I’m ready to do it. It’s true that I need to take more hou𝄹rs [to prepare my body], but it’s my job and it’s what I will do. If I’m racing it’s because I am able to do it.”

A maไjor factor in Marquez leaving Honda at the end of last year was because of the toll he put his body through in getting back to full fitness not being matched by a competitive package from HRC.

Moving to Gresini to ride a year-old D🤡ucati was about seeing if he could still be♛ competitive in MotoGP.

That has proven to be the case in 2024, with Marquez 🍃noting that mentally he feels “stronger 😼and stronger”.

“Physically, it’s wors﷽e, because more or less in 2019 my body 🐼was ok,” he added.

“Of course, now it’s ok enough to fight on the race track to fi🦄ght with the top gu🌱ys.

“But of course I need to work more at home. But on mental side, now🐭 I start to feel stronger and stronger.

“Aragon, Red Bull Ring and this race🌳 [San Marino] gave🔜 me that confidence.

“In Aragon, it was always a good track for me. But [at Misano] leading ꦐthe race, open a gap… sometimes yo𓃲u forget what that feeling is and today I was able to do it.”