Marc Márquez will sit out of the Americas Grand Prix this weekend to continue his injury rehabilitation after crashing out of the opening race in Portugal last month.
Márquez fractured the metacarpal bone in his right thumb in the contentious third-lap crash with Miguel Oliveira that put both out of the race.
Both riders missed the following round in Argentina, with Oliveira struggling with tendon damage in his right leg.
Honda has now confirmed that Márquez will also miss this weekend’s race in Texas to continue his recovery and to “avoid any unnecessary risks” following a CAT scan earlier this week.
The team did not confirm whether the Spaniard would be fit for the subsequent Spanish Grand Prix at the end of the month.
The Americas GP will be the 10th grand prix Márquez has skipped in a little over 12 months and his 14th missed race since returning to the sport in 2021 after breaking his arm early in the previous year.
The Circuit of the Americas is also one of his most successful circuits, having won seven of nine races ever held at the track.
His non-appearance could also delay resolution to the rolling appeals saga over his penalty for causing the injurious crash in Portimão.
The stewards declared that Márquez was to blame for the crash and slapped him with a double long-lap penalty, but the official ruling document said the punishment was applicable specifically at the Argentine Grand Prix.
When the Spaniard pulled out of the race with injury, the stewards retrospectively changed the punishment to apply to whichever race he next entered, but Honda appealed the modified wording for being “not in line with the current regulations”, though the team has no dispute with the penalty itself.
A stewards hearing in Argentina referred the matter to the FIM Court of Appeal, with a hearing date yet to be fixed. Sky Sport Italia has reported the court is unlikely to meet before this Friday at the earliest, though Márquez’s withdrawal from the race buys it another fortnight before the next event.
Marquez’s absence extends Honda’s nightmare injury toll at the start of the season, with Joan Mir also having missed the Argentine Grand Prix with concussion following a crash during the Saturday sprint.
Mir will return this weekend, but the team is yet to name a replacement rider for Márquez. Reserve rider Stefan Bradl has covered the Spaniard during his long injury spells in recent years, and the German was in action during private testing earlier this week.
Márquez will be just one of at least three riders to miss this weekend’s race following the carnage in Portugal.
Enea Bastianini, winner of last year’s Americas Grand Prix, was also withdrawn from the event to continue his recovery from a fractured shoulder blade.
Bastianini injured his shoulder in a crash with Luca Marini in the first-ever MotoGP sprint, which prevented him from taking part in the rest of the weekend.
He skipped Argentina two weeks ago in the hope of appearing in Austin, but some exploratory laps on a Ducati superbike during the week confirmed that he is still unfit to resume racing duties, pushing his earliest potential return date out to the end of the month.
Bastianini is yet to complete a grand prix in his new factory Ducati leathers, having switched from Gresini this year.
Ducati will replace him with test rider Michele Pirro, who has made sporadic premier-class appearances since his only full-time MotoGP season in 2012.
Pol Espargaró remains on the long-term injury list following his sickening practice crash in Portugal that broke his back and jaw and bruised his lungs.
The Gas Gas rider was out of ICU at the start of the month and is able to walk, but he isn’t expected to be back on the bike for several more months, with June pegged as an earliest possible return.
Jonas Folger, who last raced in MotoGP in 2017, will replace Espargaró on his satellite KTM machine.
Oliveira is likely to return this week from his crash with Márquez. The Portuguese RNF rider has flown to Texas, though he must first be declared fit by MotoGP doctors on arrival at the Circuit of the Americas.
