After the triumphant Grand Prix of the Americas, the Repsol Honda squad is getting ready for the third round of the MotoGP World Championship at Jerez with renewed confidence after the alarming one-two in the opening round in Qatar by the Yamaha duo Rossi and Lorenzo, the HRC riders got even with the Yamaha boys at the Austin round, with Marc Marquez taking all the haedlines for having established several new precocity records for the premier class.
Still elated for his historic first win and pole in Texas, Marc Marquez will definitely have all eyes on him upon his return home as a MotoGP rider, not to mention the fact he’s going to show up as the Championship leader (in cohabitation with fellow countruman Jorge Lorenzo), with all the pressure that the role entails.
However, in his previous appearances on the Andalusian circuit, the 20 year old Spanish phenomenon has picked up just two second places but no wins.
Considering also that in winter testing, after three glittering days in Austin, Marquez was not that brilliant at the following test in Jerez, it’s not hard to understand why Marquez prefers to keep a low profile on the eve of the battle:“The Austin race is a weekend I will never forget and I would like to thank you all for all your support and kind messages! Now we arrive back to Europe and it’s important to keep our feet on the ground and remain focused.
All the other riders have much more experience than me in these circuits and we will need to work hard.
I’m looking forward to racing in front of the Spanish fans for the first time on a MotoGP machine in Jerez and we will try our hardest to get the best result, if we can achieve a podium then it would be great! Our goal is to keep learning and finish each race” Despite the second place in Austin behind his young team-mate, Dani Pedrosa says he was happy with the result.
The quiet Spaniard would probably never admit that openly, but his goal for the weekend will be to finally cross the finish line in front of his rampant team-mate in order to re-establish himself as the real title contender for the HRC army.
Here’s what he said on his way to Jerez de La Frontera:“Even though I missed out on the victory in Austin, we take many positives from the weekend.
I am happy as we have reduced the gap to the leaders and I have recovered the good feelings that we had in preseason.
Now we head to Jerez, which is one of my favourite circuits to race at.
The atmosphere there is amazing and the fans are very passionate.
The weather wasn’t good for us in testing there a month ago, but it’s a track we know well.
We will look to continue with the momentum we left Austin and work hard from the first practice session to give ourselves the best chances for the race” Foto © Getty Images – Tutti i diritti riservati