Esteve Rabat is targeting nothing short of a victory as he prepares to kick off his Moto2 world championship defence in Qatar this weekend. Rabat is the first rider in the history of the intermediate class, in its current guise, to stay in the series despite winning the title and the Spaniard fully expects to have the pace to pick up where he left off in 2014.
“I’m pretty happy with our preseason testing, mainly because of the rain. We were able to test extensively in the wet, which I’ve never had the opportunity to do before and we learnt a lot. We know that in the dry we have the pace to fight for the win, and I think the same is also true when it’s wet now. And that’s the approach for this season, to go to every race and to try and fight for the win, starting this weekend in Qatar.”
While Rabat was pleased with the wet weather in testing, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS teammate Alex Marquez needed every possible dry lap to prepare himself for his Moto2 debut. The current Moto3 champion doesn’t know what to expect from his first race in the intermediate class but stresses he is up for the challenge.
“Qatar will be my first race in Moto2, so everything is new and we will need to concentrate all weekend. We haven’t had such good luck with the weather during the preseason tests; I needed dry track time on the bike, but mostly we had rain, which wasn’t ideal. It means we need to find a good setting with the bike in Qatar and a good rhythm for the race, but I head to the first race really motivated to work hard with the team. We need to do the best job we can during practice in Qatar, so we’re ready for the race. It’s difficult to say what my expectations are for the first race, after such a wet preseason, but there will be quite a few riders in the same situation.”
