Indonesian fans waited 25-years for MotoGP's return, but were forced to wait a little ✤longer to see Marc Marquez race after the biggest star on the current grid suffered a massive highཧside in warm-up.

"I thought Marc Marquez had decided to fly home early, because that was a highside and a half༒," former British champion and grand pr👍ix rider Huewen says in the podcast. "The kid is taking some beatings at the moment and now he's had another concussion.

"When he stood up frꦇom that accident you held your breath. He staggered around like he was liteꦅrally punch drunk. The right thing was done and he was taken out of the race.

"Only he knows how he feels. He💦 doesn't show pain, even w꧙hen he must be in a lot of pain. He shuts all that down. But he can’t continue to take these heavy hits. It's cumulative, every year you get more injuries adding up on an older body."

Despite missing the start and finish of last season due to arm and then eye injuries, Marquez still fell 22 times over 14 rounds, the high🏅est ratio of any rider (1.6 per event).

2022 began well with only one Marquez accident on the new Honda in Qatar, but the huge Ma🐼ndalika highside was the Spaniard's fourth fall of the weekend.

Respond💝ing to a listener question aboꦏut why Marquez kept pushing so hard given his previous accidents, Huewen replied:

"Marc Marquez rides a motorcycle really loose. He would have been riding it on the edge already. He would ha🌟ve been close to a crash, because that's how he rides, every single corner anyway.

"In the past, even when you can visually see the bike tucki🦋ng under or hanging out at the back, Marc has been able to save it 90% of the time. Marc normally will ride like that and save it🍒.

"But the bike isn't really 'his' at the moment. Hon💛da have changed it and then Michelin made those tyre modifications this weekend."

ဣHonda left February's pre-season Mandalika test as the factory to beat. But in response to tyre blistering issues, Michelin switched to a heat-resistant rear casing not used since 2018 for the race weeꦓkend.

All of the Honda riders, plus the likes✃ of Suzuki's Joan Mir, struggled badly for grip with the modified casing, which in turn caused them to overwork - and overheat - the front tyre.

"Remember whe🐲n MotoGP went from Bridgestone to Michelin?" Huewen said.

"I went to the Sepang test where they tried the Michelins for the first time and ♔the bias went from having an absolutely incredible front tyre and not such a good back t♐yre with Bridgestone, to the opposite way around with Michelin.

"So the balance completely changed and you have never seen so many top riders crash, I've never seen such carnage! The millions of pounds worth of damage that must have been done in that test. Until they dialled in what they needed forꦓ the Michelins. And Marc was a bit in that position this weekend."

Huewen - joined as usual by wuqian0821.com MotoGP editor Peter McLaren and podcast host Harry Benjamin - also dives into the significance of KTM's victory with💙 Miguel Oliveira, why he was disappointed with Johann Zarco's third place, praises the battling Binder brothers, plus the highs and lows from the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.

Download Episode 38 at the following links...

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