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- – Marc Marquez will become champion if he finishes ahead of Pedrosa and does not concede more than 3 points to Rossi and 15 to Lorenzo.
- – Dani Pedrosa has four wins at Motegi: One in 125cc (2002), one in 250cc (2004) and two in MotoGP (2011 and 2012).
- – Alex Marquez returns to the scene of his first victory as Moto3 leader.
Repsol Honda team riders head to Japan, where the leader of the World Champion could secure a second consecutive MotoGP title. At Motegi, Dani Pedrosa has won four times.
The fifteenth round of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship will take place this weekend at the home of Honda. At the Motegi circuit, Marc Marquez will have its first opportunity to mathematically confirm his second consecutive premier class title ‒his fourth World Championship in Grand Prix racing. For this to happen, the Repsol Honda Team rider must finish ahead of Dani Pedrosa and not concede more than 3 points to Rossi and 15 to Lorenzo. Teammate Pedrosa wants to consolidate at least the runner-up spot at a track where he has been victorious a total of four times.
The Repsol riders in Moto3 reach Japan on a strong run of form in recent races. Alex Marquez took the overall lead after a podium at Aragon, and this week returns to the scene of his first victory in the World Championship. Alex Rins is third in the standings, 18 points off the top and 7 off second place. Both riders will try to give Honda another victory, this time at the factory’s home track.
Marc Marquez
“Aragon was a difficult situation and we learnt a valuable lesson. However, we were lucky that we didn’t lose points to our rivals and now I know that in Japan it’s my first chance to take the Championship. I will try not to think about it too much ‒even if I know it would be great to achieve this on Honda’s home soil‒ we will go there and work hard from day one and treat it as a normal race weekend and push for the victory on Sunday. Last year was my first visit to Motegi on a MotoGP machine and it was a very difficult weekend, so we hope to have more dry track time this year to find a good setup!”
Dani Pedrosa
“Obviously Aragon was a tough race and in the end I made the wrong choice not to come in earlier. Anyway, we have moved on and now I am focused on Motegi. I always enjoy travelling to Honda’s home race, it’s a big event for Honda and this always gives me extra motivation to perform well. The track has a lot of heavy braking and acceleration points, so a good setup is essential for the braking stability and to get good traction out of the corners. Let’s hope the weather is better than last year!”
Alex Rins
“I come into this Grand Prix just 18 points behind the leader and closer to the top than ever. I really want to get out there and start competing, because I always get very motivated for this Grand Prix. At Motegi you never know what will happen, because the weather changes a lot ‒as it did last year, when it rained. The circuit is Honda’s home track, so we have to do well to give them a good result.”
Alex Marquez
“Motegi is a circuit that will always be special to me, because I scored my first victory in the World Championship there last year. That should make us work harder in practice, since our motivation is even greater than normal. It’s also an important race for Honda, because it is their home, so we will try to be very focused.”
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