Spanish MotoGP team ready to fight for the top ten again after Álvaro Bautista’s eighth place in Thailand
Marc Márquez arrives at the Grand Prix of Japan this weekend with his first chance to wrap up what would be his fifth MotoGP World Championship title in just six seasons. The Spaniard currently holds a 77-point advantage over Andrea Dovizioso, his main rival this season, with just 100 left in play. As long as that gap remains at 75 or more by the end of this Sunday’s race, Márquez will claim the title. The last race in Thailand provided proof if needed that a conservative race is not Márquez’s style, after a head-to-head battle with his Ducati rival that went to the final corner and swung the Spaniard’s way by just 0.115 seconds at the line. But whilst Dovizioso’s title hopes may fade, the battle for the runner-up position is very much alive, with just 22 points separating him from Valentino Rossi.
The Ángel Nieto Team’s Asian adventure continues this weekend at the Motegi circuit in Japan, where the quest for the top ten remains the target for Álvaro Bautista. After finishing eighth in Thailand, just six seconds off the victory, the Spaniard is hoping to keep his form going and repeat the kind of performance level that also saw him progress directly to Q2 in Buriram. His teammate Karel Abraham will once again be fighting for the points at a circuit where he holds good memories, including his first ever Grand Prix podium back in 2010 when he finished in third place behind Toni Elías and Julián Simón.
Álvaro Bautista: “Motegi is a hard circuit on brakes and it will be important to have a bike that is stable both under braking and under acceleration. I think we have started the Asian tour well and we need to keep working along the same lines to try and get back into Q2 and establish the same feeling with the bike that we had in Thailand. Our objective has to be a position fifth and tenth, which I think is the best we can hope for with our package.”
Karel Abraham: “I am happy to be going back to Japan, I always look forward to racing there and I have good memories of Motegi, where I scored my first podium in the Moto2 class in 2010. After a week off since the last race in Thailand we now have a run of three back-to-back weekends and it will be important to start on the right foot.”