The Honda rider qualified on the front row for his comeback weekend at Le Mans and briefly led Sunday’s grand prix.
Marquez ultimately fought with Pramac’s Jorge Martin for second in the latter stages of the race, but crashed at Turn 6 on the penultimate tour while in the runner-up spot.
It means Marquez has yet to finish a grand prix in 2023 after crashing out in Portugal, which led to his three-round injury layoff.
Despite losing a podium, which he admits he was “maybe not ready” for, Marquez was elated with his grand prix as it was “a long time” since he felt that good in a race.
“Honestly, I’m very, very happy about the race today,” Marquez said.
“It’s a shame we didn’t receive any good results with all the hard work we did. We crashed with one lap and a half remaining.
“But I was riding in a very good way. It was a long time ago that I was feeling like this myself – not with the bike.
“Myself, I was riding well, I was going into the corner with some sliding, I was braking late. I was able to fight against the other riders.
“I’m happy about that. Of course, I’m unhappy about the result, but maybe the only problem was the podium was close and maybe I was not ready to fight for the podium.
“But I prefer to lose a race like this and not to finish in 10th position. I enjoyed it, but we need to keep working to improve for the future.”
Source: Autosport