Marc Marquez delights at pain-free Mugello weekend: 'I give myself 10 out of 10'

The nine-time world champion has missed the last three races after a nasty head-over-heels crash in Jerez led to a teary pitbox moment and double surgery. Initially dealing with a foot injury from the crash, he also had screws removed from a shoulder ailment that was causing pain.

Thankfully, both interventions proved to be successful. Marquez was not only relatively pain-free but also showed some of his best form in a duel with Pedro Acosta around one of MotoGP’s most physically demanding circuits.

Fifth in the sprint and seventh in the feature race, there was also more reason for optimism as teammate Francesco Bagnaia took his Ducati to the podium at its home race, showing it too may have found some solutions to its early-season struggles. So for Marquez, he cut a completely different figure from the one who left Jerez full of emotion.

“Well, I’m very happy, especially with how we finished the weekend, because we had a great time,” he said post-race. “Besides, I think we exceeded my own expectations for this weekend.

“I tried to be at the front the whole race, to fight for that fourth position, knowing I was going to lose it, because I knew the last few laps would be my weak point,” the defending world champion added after eventually losing positions to Acosta, Ai Ogura and Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Yet not for Marquez, who confirmed that he can start looking forward to the rest of the season: “The pure and simple objective of the operation was to improve neural function. That has been improved. Now, logically, we will have to understand where one hundred per cent is, and to get there, we have to give one hundred per cent every day, no matter what the level is.