HRC boss: Laguna challenge no problem for Marc Marquez

The fact that Marc Marquez will have never ridden anything bigger than a scooter around the Laguna Seca track when he begins the first MotoGP practice session on Friday morning will not pose any concern to the current world championship leader.

The Spaniard will go into this weekend’s California clash completely raw having never ridden the challenging Laguna Seca track before.

Marquez, who won last weekend’s German MotoGP round at the Sachsenring to move above injured pair Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo in the title chase, didn’t have chance to fit into a hectic schedule a visit to Laguna to learn the track on a production bike.

German Stefan Bradl rode a production bike prior to his premier class debut at Laguna in 2012 and earlier this season British rider Bradley Smith rode a Yamaha R1 to learn the track, which features the world famous Corkscrew section.

But HRC boss Livio Suppo doesn’t believe the 20-year-old’s lack of experience of one of the hardest tracks on the calendar to master will be a major handicap this weekend.

Suppo told MCN: “We looked at a test but there was only really one day with a few hours available so it would be really useless. In my personal opinion I am not so sure that this kind of thing is useful and to go there on a production bike doesn’t make a lot of sense.

If you check the results of Dani and Casey (Stoner) in 2006, they were both new and to them it made little difference after the first couple of sessions. These guys can learn a track quite quickly and at this level they can learn the secrets.

From the Corkscrew to the end you need to be brave and Marc is not lacking in this area. Another good example is the Austin test earlier this year. Cal (Crutchlow) didn’t test there and he was in front of other riders who did.”