The Borneo Post (Sabah)

Marquez eyes top podium finish in Sepang

-

SEPANG: The 2018 MotoGP world champion, Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda Team is eyeing a top podium finish during the weekend’s Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Sepang Internatio­nal Circuit (SIC).

After claiming a stunning victory at the Japan GP last month to wrap up a sensationa­l fifth MotoGP World Championsh­ip title, the 25-year-old Spaniard is looking forward to add on his podium collection on a track that he and Honda did very well during pre-season testing.

“We’ll try to continue it in the same way...in Phillip Island we struggled a bit then in the race, we were in good shape so we’ll try and keep our performanc­e here.

“The pre-season was good here..the race pace...but now it’s completely different. Different bikes and different setups, so we forget about that and concentrat­e on the weekend. We will start from FP1 and try to work hard then we’ll see if we can fight for the podium, the top five or the victory,” he said at the pre-event press conference here yesterday.

Meanwhile, Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati, who is taking maximum points in both 2016 and 2017 edition at Sepang Circuit, was excited to see how his team performs in a dry race after his two victories came in the wet conditions.

“This track is good for me but in the past, if we look at the result we did not take a lot of good results in the dry. The last two years we won in the wet but it will be interestin­g to see what our speed would be in the dry,” said the number ‘04’ rider.

With two races left including the Malaysian GP this weekend and Valencia GP next week, Dovizioso who is currently in second place in the overall standings with 210 points is expected to give his best as Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, Valentino Rossi only 15 points behind him. -

 ?? - AFP photo ?? Repsol HondaTeam’s Spanish rider Marc Marquez powers his bike during warm up seesion of the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island ahead of the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix.
- AFP photo Repsol HondaTeam’s Spanish rider Marc Marquez powers his bike during warm up seesion of the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island ahead of the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Malaysia