MotoGP, Marquez: Motegi? If I can't win I'll settle

The first match point is service, because this weekend Marc Marquez has a strong chance of being crowned World Champion for the seventh time in his career. There are many combinations by which he can secure the title, the simplest being if he wins the races. If he reach that stop step of the rostrum, the title trophy is his.

The Honda rider is trying not to think too much about calculations: “We have our first match ball at Honda’s home race, which is very important for our Factory. Of course we’ll try to get the best result in front of Honda’s people and home fans, but Motegi is a stop-and-go track where strong acceleration is a key factor, so we’ll have to work hard and improve a little bit in that area if we want to fight with Ducati."

Marc remains level-headed, well aware of his rivals' potential: “Otherwise, we’ll try to remain focused and calm and handle the situation as well as possible. The important thing is to ultimately achieve our goal at some point.”

Still in the Honda camp, we hope to see a Dani Pedrosa as determined as he was at Buriram, up until shortly before his crash: “I’ve had many good results at Motegi in the past as I enjoy the track a lot, but I’ve also suffered some challenging moments. I hope we’ll be able to continue the progress we’ve made in the last races, in term of pace and bike setup.”