The Honda rider suffered a bruising weekend at the German GP in which he crashed five times, the last one leaving him with multiple fractures and ruling him out of the grand prix.
He elected to race this weekend at Assen but has altered his approach to reduce risk, given how bad the Honda is performing right now.
Ending Friday practice 19th overall, Marquez says he had no choice but to be at Assen as sitting out for six weeks including the summer break wasn’t an option if he hopes to help Honda improve its situation.
“In the other weekends, I felt good, I was able to push,” he said on Friday at Assen.
“But this weekend, I didn’t race in Sachsenring because I wasn’t feeling well and I feel pain, and we’re on the bike after four days.
“So, the body recovered a little bit, but still it’s painful. So, I feel a big limitation there. So, I cannot go for anything this weekend – I can’t.
“I mean, I’m competing because I then have one month and a half [off for the summer break].
“And with the feeling of Sachsenring, to be two months without being on the bike, believe me this is not the best for a rider.
“So, I need this weekend. For the mental side, I need to keep riding, keep going, and of course when you have difficult moments the motivation is not there.
“But you need to keep your routines, you need to keep the same way to work, you need to keep the same way to believe to change the situation in the future. But at home, the situation will never change.”
Marquez suffered a crash at Turn 3 at the end of FP2 pushing for a fast lap.
He explained this was a result of him feeling quick only in sector one, and therefore he simply pushed too much.
“I expected not to suffer so much with physical condition, but I was suffering,” he added.
“The ankle and the finger is broken, but this was ok, was acceptable. But the rib, on the last sector it’s painful and when I start to breathe more and more, then it’s more pain.
“Then I’m losing a lot of time. So, the only point where I feel more or less ok is sector one, because it’s slow corners, and it’s there where I push.
“It’s there where I try to be faster and faster. It’s not easy, I was cruising all day, trying things.
“And from one run to another, trying to be one second quicker is not easy. It’s there where I did the mistake, because I was not used to arriving at that speed in that corner.
“But it was a very soft crash. Tomorrow, in Q1 I will try to push a bit to try to not start on the last row – maybe second-last, or third-last – and try to finish the weekend.”
