The MotoGP summer break may have begun, but German Grand Prix winner Marc Marquez says he is going to hit the gym hard in order to return fully fit and challenge for an eighth premier-class world title.
Having moved from fifth to third in the championship following a full quota of 37 points at the Sachsenring on Sunday, the motivated Marquez is not about to lie on a beach in the coming weeks. He sees the break as the ideal opportunity to put his injury battles behind him.
Marquez, who has ridden a fitness rollercoaster ever since his crash at Mandalika late last year, has won three of the last four races but says his troubled right arm still isn't back to normal. Two of his three victories came at tracks noted for being less physical than most– Balaton and the Sachsenring – while his Czech GP win was only achieved by pushing himself to the edge of exhaustion.
In order to contend at every type of track in the second half of the year, Marquez reckons he needs to take advantage of the chance to get into a sustained training rhythm during the summer break.
"I will approach the break with love, happiness and try to take a rest on the mental side," he said in the press conference after his dominant win in Germany. "But on the physical side, I will try to keep working. Because one of the points that I cannot do like in the past [is that] I cannot train every day. I always need to have some days between hard training.
"That's where I need more time to come back to my level. But we will try to do it."
Marquez revealed earlier in the weekend that he is living in Madrid partly because of the special training equipment that is on offer in the Spanish capital.
When asked to elaborate on his intention to take a rest "on the mental side", Marquez referred to his difficult start to 2026, which turned out to be the result of a loose screw from a previous operation affecting his feeling on the bike. This was corrected in a surgical procedure in May.
"You cannot imagine... how stressful the first part of the season was for me," he continued. "The first five races... because I didn't understand anything. I was crashing without knowing what was going on, because the nerves didn't give me any warning.
"And then, as I said at Brno, it's impossible to ride with the intensity we did the Hungarian GP and the Czech GP. Here it's true that I was able to ride in a better way, so let's see if step by step I can ride in the same way, but with less stress."
German GP in photos - Sunday
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
German GP - Sunday, in photos
