Back yes, but "How fit?" will be the question. As he discovered, there is little that compares with riding a MotoGP bike at pace lap after lap. Anything from doing too much practice too fast, blowing up his nerve missing the race to winning is possible. Here would be my best guess: Modest amount of practice limiting setup time. This is where not having a teammate up to speed to take data from is going to hurt. Probably will be good for a fast lap in P3 to barely squeeze into Q2. Probably good for a 3rd row in Q2. Decent at the start of the race, but fades or even retires in the race as the arm gets worse and/or lack of setup time kills the tire.
Marc is as close to being Superman as is possible for a human, but he’s not actually Superman (probably). A podium wouldn’t be as stunning as say Avintia Ducati winning a dry race, but it would be surprising. I think he’s going to do extremely well considering, but more like 6th - 8th after fading from the front.
Yeah Marc’s 90% is still faster than anyone else’s 100% save probably Fabio. I don’t think Marc will have 90% though. If Marc were on a Yamaha I think he could do it, but that Honda likes to be pushed down and abused and I don’t think even Marc can ride like that with a broken arm.
I suspect he either podiums or DNFs. If he can physically ride, I think he’s good enough to put it on the podium regardless of any pain. But if he has a similar issue with his arm swelling, pinching the nerve, and losing use of his arm, it doesn’t matter how tough he is. He can’t race without use of one arm.
There is a reason you're supposed to rest and recover and that doesn't include doing pushups and dragging elbow like he was doing. If he doesn't take the next couple weeks off he's going to fuck himself up for good..
"The rider has not felt pain during this period. He has always followed the medical advice given and the feeling from his body. Unfortunately, an over stress has caused this issue. Now we have to wait 48 hours to understand the recovery time.” Not one word of that sentence, and the contradictions it alludes to, sounds surprising.
I'm just the least little bit skeptical that the physicians who bolted his arm together really gave him the medical advice that it would be just fine for him to go race a motorcycle at the highest level of competition on the planet less than a week after the procedure was done.
I'd just like to take a moment to ask those who thought him trying to race Jerez #2 was a good idea if they still stand by their previous statements?
So wait, it wasn't a brilliant idea to go back to racing less than a week after the first surgery? Who would've thought?