Gran Premio d’Italia
MotoGP 2018 Round 6
Leading the standings, Repsol Honda Team arrives at Mugello for Italian GP
After extending his string of consecutive wins to three in Le Mans last week, Marc Marquez is now heading to Mugello, in Italy—the scene of his first GP win back in 2010—with a 36-point lead in the MotoGP Championship classification.
Teammate Dani Pedrosa will be looking to enjoy a better weekend at the Tuscan track after a challenging start to the season and will be hoping his physical condition has improved further since the French GP almost two weeks ago.
At the Gran Premio d’Italia:
Marc Marquez has been victorious at Mugello in all three classes—2014 in MotoGP, 2011 in Moto2, and 2010 in 125cc (his first GP win in career). The 25-year-old also scored a second-place result in 2016, and he has two pole positions.
Dani Pedrosa has two wins at Mugello: 1 x 250 (2005) and 1 x MotoGP (2010), plus an additional six podiums and two pole positions.
Marc Marquez 93
“It’s good to go to Mugello with an advantage in the Championship, but we’re still in the early phase of the season and everything is very tight, so we must keep our feet well on the ground. We had a test at Mugello before the French GP and were able to be fast and very consistent. That’s good of course, but you always have to wait and see what situation you’re in when you start working for the race. There are always question marks regarding tyres, setup, temperatures, and so on. For instance, conditions will probably be warmer this weekend compared to when we tested, so we’ll just keep concentrating to try and manage well the usual ups and downs of preparing for a race.”
Dani Pedrosa 26
“After a full week of rest following the Catalunya test, I’m really looking forward to going to race at Mugello. It’s a nice track that I like. It’s very fast, with many chicanes, and you must work hard to find a good setup because it’s particularly important to have a good feeling with the bike in all the corner entries. We had a test at Mugello at the beginning of May, so we’ll see if we’re able to start well beginning in FP1. I have a great relationship with Italy and Italian fans!”