PRAGUE - Spanish rookie Marc Marquez will seek to extend his three-race winning streak and widen his lead of the MotoGP standings when the world championships continue with the Czech Grand Prix in Brno on Sunday. The 20-year-old Spaniard leads the MotoGP pack after 10 of 18 races with 188 points, 21 ahead of his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa and 35 ahead of Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo.
With his impressive win at Indianapolis on Sunday, Marquez became the first rookie to win three consecutive premier-class races since American Kenny Roberts in 1978. In that same year, Roberts also won the championships as a rookie -- a feat unrivalled to the present day, and a challenge for the red-hot Marquez.
"Now we go back to Europe and we will try to continue in the same way," Marquez told motogp.com after winning the Indy title on Sunday. "I had a perfect weekend and I will try to repeat that in the future but it will be difficult. There are still a lot of races to go and Jorge and Dani have a lot more experience," he said.
Pedrosa won at Brno ahead of Lorenzo last year, while Marquez took the Moto2 victory before replacing Australia's Casey Stoner at Repsol Honda for this season. "Brno isn't one of my favourite tracks but I won there last year so I still have a good feeling there," the crash.net website quoted Marquez as saying.
He added he expected Lorenzo and his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, fourth overall, to be serious contenders for him on the 5.4-kilometre (3.4-mile) circuit in the southern Czech city of Brno. "We will see when we get there, historically Yamaha have been very strong so I'm sure they will be very fast again this year, also considering they tested there a few weeks ago."
Earlier this month, Lorenzo and Rossi spent two days on the Brno circuit testing a new seamless shift gearbox already used by Honda, which their team hopes to use at Brno. "I don't think the points situation makes a big difference about this decision for Yamaha [to race debut the new gearbox]. But I will hope to have it in Brno," Lorenzo told crash.net.
"We need some push now, some pieces maybe, some evolution to be more competitive. Because now it's difficult to fight with" Marquez and Pedrosa, he added. Lorenzo, the reigning world champion who missed July's German GP over a broken collarbone, said after Indy that "from this moment we can only be better and better".
Recovering from the same injury, Pedrosa was equally upbeat. "It's important I can recover in time for Brno just a few days from now," Pedrosa said after finishing second at Indianapolis despite problems caused by the injury. "Brno is a fast track, with high speed corners and in the past the Honda has performed well there. Last year we had a strong race there and I hope we can repeat the same this year."