MOTOGP SEASON RESUMES IN CZECH REPUBLIC
Ángel Nieto Team head for Brno and a special round for home rider Karel Abraham, with Bautista’s top five finish in Germany still fresh in the mind
A short summer break for the MotoGP World Championship riders comes to a close this weekend with the tenth round of the season, the Czech Republic Grand Prix. Marc Márquez arrives at Brno with a 46-point advantage over number 46, Valentino Rossi, on the back of two straight wins and with the added confidence of having won at this track in 2017. Rossi and Maverick Viñales lead the group of men aiming to halt the Spaniard’s charge, with this the first of ten races to try and deny the reigning World Champion of another title.
The Ángel Nieto Team return to action at the most special race of the season for Karel Abraham. The Czech rider goes into his home round looking to repeat his points-scoring performance of 2017, when he crossed the Brno finish line in thirteenth place. His team-mate Álvaro Bautista heads into the second half of the season with the memory still fresh of a strong race in Germany, where he finished in fifth place and just five seconds behind the race winner Márquez. The Spaniard has been on an upward curve ever since his own home race at Jerez earlier this year, and he is determined to continue in the same vein this weekend.
Álvaro Bautista: “We’re looking forward to getting back to action now after a couple of weeks with no MotoGP. We went on our holidays with a good taste in the mouth after Germany, where we found a really good feeling with the bike. Brno is a very different circuit but the level we have been riding at in the last few rounds means we can be ready for anything. We want to continue on this upward curve, closing the gap to the front guys. For that to happen we need to qualify well, because that allows us to go with the lead group in the race and match the pace of the best. I am really motivated for this second half of the season, with the objective of improving on the results from the first half. We are going to keep fighting to close the gap even more to the front and battle for a top five position like Sachsenring”.
Karel Abraham: “This is my home race and I am feeling ambitious. We haven’t scored a lot of points this season so it would be nice to do that at Brno. I am looking forward to the race, even though we have not had much time to rest since Germany and it is also one of my busiest rounds of the season because I have a lot of things to do off the track. It will be a good weekend and it will be nice to feel the support of the fans so close.”