MotoGP: Qatar ‘not the best circuit’ for Marquez’s riding style

Marc Marquez has admitted that the home of the opening round of the 2017 MotoGP world championship is very definitely not the place that he wants the season to be kicking off. A track where both rider and Honda RC213V have struggled in recent years, the reigning world champion says he’s expecting a tough opening weekend.

“The first race of the season is always a special one because you’re a bit more nervous than usual! The Qatar track is also one of the most special circuits on the calendar and one of the main things to consider is the sand, which can make the surface off slippery ace soon as you get out of the best line. The limit is very narrow.”

“There are three very strong braking points and you need good front stability. Maybe it’s not one of the best tracks for my riding style, but I like it and we have worked very hard during the preseason to find a good rhythm and a good base setup for all circuits. From a technical point of view, we’re starting this championship better than the last one, and although that doesn’t automatically mean that the results will be better, I think our machine you’ve reached a level to fight for the podium. We’ll try to manage well from the beginning on Thursday.”

On the other side of the garage, his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa sounds a little more upbeat, however, buoyed by a strong run of form in preseason testing that he says should help them maintain momentum into this weekend’s race.

“We worked well with the team during the entire preseason, including the last test here in Qatar, and little by little we improved our bike and our performance. There are still things we want to improve here and there but they never stop working in Japan, and we’ll also do our best to continue in a good direction.

“The track is very dusty and the place is quite windy, so the grip is generally not very very good. There’s a long long straight where we typically have a headwind and therefore you need a strong engine. It’s difficult to make any predictions for the race as the level of competition is very high, but we’re about to start the weekend with good confidence and the desire to do our best.”