After losing his COTA crown, there’s no doubt Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) will be as motivated as ever to retake control of the MotoGP™ World Championship at the Gran Premio Red Bull de España. “A special race” is how the reigning champion described Sunday’s main event and after Austin’s drama saw him slip to fourth in the standings, a big performance is needed.
Similar to the Americas GP, the Circuito de Jerez -Angel Nieto has been a happy hunting ground for the number 93 in recent years with a ninth straight podium finish in his sights this weekend - his last failure coming in 2011 when he was taken out of the Moto2™ race by Jules Cluzel.
There’s also a milestone to be reached on Saturday too, as a third straight pole position in Jerez, following his success in qualifying at Termas and COTA, would see Marquez move second in the list of riders with the most premier class pole positions.
A 55th pole would move him level with Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and three behind Mick Doohan, who holds the record with 58 500cc/MotoGP™ pole positions. However, Saturday success hasn’t been a regular feature of the Repsol Honda man’s Jerez weekends, with his last top spot qualifying finish coming back in 2014.
“Jerez is always a special race because it is the first in Europe and there’s a lot of support from the Spanish fans,” said the seven-time World Champion.
Nothing could stop @marcmarquez93 at Jerez last year, not even gravel at one of the toughest corners on the circuit! ????????#SpanishGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/1wHjgdDplo
— MotoGP™ ???????? (@MotoGP) April 27, 2019
Despite failing to collect what had become his customary 25 points in Americas, the 26-year-old won’t be treating this weekend any differently as he looks to cut the nine-point gap to the championship leader, Mission Winnow Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.