Lorenzo up for Marquez battle in Aragon

MADRID: Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo has Marc Marquez in his sights as he looks to eat into his compatriot’s lead atop the championship standings at the Aragon MotoGP this weekend. Marquez has had a sensational debut season in MotoGP as the 20-year-old has won five races on his way to amassing a 34-point lead over both Lorenzo and Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa.

However, Lorenzo has battled back from surgery on a broken collarbone, which forced him to miss the Dutch GP back in June, to win the last two races in Britain and San Marino. And the Yamaha rider is hoping that improvements to his bike added to a return to full health will see him make it a hat-trick of wins in the third of the four calendar races in Spain.

“I’m really looking forward to going to Aragon because at that track we did a very good test before the Assen Grand Prix,” he told the Yahama Factory Racing website. “In those tests we were the fastest and now we have an even better bike. I’m looking forward to getting to know our new level at the circuit. “I feel very good physically and also the last Misano test went very well for us, so I’m going to Aragon feeling positive.” The Motorland circuit, however, is one of the few tracks where Lorenzo has never experienced victory with last season’s second place his best finish in three tries since its inauguration in 2010.

Marquez, however, has tasted victory in Aragon as a Moto2 rider back in 2011 and is looking forward to a first MotoGP ride on a track he describes as amongst his favorites. “It will be nice to return to race in Aragon in front of our home fans this weekend,” he said. “The circuit is one of my favorites. It has two very technical sectors to start and then at the end you need to go very hard on the corners.” However, it was Pedrosa who emerged victorious in last season’s visit to Motorland and he is still very much in the hunt for his first world championship title.—AFP