Marc Marquez is confident of making a winning start to his 2015 MotoGP championship defence in Qatar although he is expecting his toughest challenge yet this season. The Repsol Honda rider has enjoyed a smooth pre-season programme despite rain at the Losail test and feels he is well prepared for the challenge that lies ahead.
“I can’t wait for the season to begin! It’s been a long winter and then testing was cut short in Qatar last week due to rain, which was very strange, but I’m confident going into this first race. This circuit isn’t one of my favourites but it’s still fun to ride and it marks the beginning of the Championship which is great. Let’s see how the conditions are after all the rain last week. As usual it will take a few sessions of the different classes on track to clear the racing line and then we will see how the grip level is. There are a lot of fast riders on fast bikes – as we saw during testing – so this first race weekend will be interesting for sure!”
Teammate Dani Pedrosa is also feeling optimistic despite the truncated final day of testing and feels his side of the garage has grown stronger since the end of last season.
“Unfortunately, our testing programme in Qatar ended early due to the weather last week but overall I’m confident and happy to get the season started. Since Valencia the bike has improved a lot, so I thank HRC for all their work, and also my team – where we have some new members this year – have also clicked together more and we have a good working momentum. This first race weekend is always a little tough to get back into the rhythm and also with it being stretched over four days instead of three is quite tiresome. However, now we’re ready to get out on track and put all our hard work to the test.”
