Riders ready for final MotoGP battle of 2014 in Valencia

The excitement continues to mount amongst the fans ahead of the first day of action tomorrow for the18th and final round of this year’s MotoGP World Championship with the riders eager to get on track at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia to prepare for Sunday’s Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana.

This year will be much more relaxed and I will be able to enjoy it without any pressure.

Marc Marquez

Following wrapping up his second and consecutive championship at the Japanese GP nearly four weeks ago, all eyes are on double World Champion Marc Marquez as the Repsol Honda rider his return to home soil while the main focus on-track will be on Movistar Yamaha teammates Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi who are separated by just 12 points in this year’s championship with Rossi currently sitting in second place.

Marquez still on a high from championship glory

Speaking about the past two weeks since clinching his second title in the Premier class, Marquez has had busy schedule making a number of stops on his way home. “The past month has been a whirlwind and winning the Championship in Japan seems like a long time ago now!” Marquez said while continuing, “After Malaysia we attended an event with Honda and Alpinestars in Thailand on the way home and then had a few days to relax in Spain and do some training before leaving for Milan to visit the EICMA show. It was a really good event with many people there, I really appreciate all the kind words from everyone I met!

Now we head to Valencia for the final race of an incredible season. It’s always nice to race in front of the home fans and this year will be much more relaxed and I will be able to enjoy it without any pressure!” Marquez added.

Dani Pedrosa has had a tough end to his season after losing ground on Rossi and Lorenzo in the battle for second. He said, “Obviously I’m now out of the race for second or third in the Championship, especially after the events in Malaysia, but I’m looking forward to going to Valencia and finishing the season on a high. This is always a special race for me, the fans are fantastic and they create a wonderful atmosphere. My results here in the past have been strong and this weekend I hope to repeat this and fight for victory on Sunday!”

Rossi & Lorenzo ready for second place showdown

Rossi is determined to secure second place in the championship and it’s teammate Lorenzo who has the chasing to do. Speaking ahead of getting into action he said, “It won’t be an easy race! I’m second in the championship and being 12 points ahead is good, but this gap is not sufficient enough to play a passive role this weekend. Jorge is in a good moment. During the second part of the season Jorge was very fast and he wants to win in Spain and try to take the second place from me.

We must focus on finishing the season with a victory just like we aim to do at all races! My team and I will do our best, as usual. Valencia isn’t one of my favorite tracks, but that doesn’t bother me. In this season we were strong also in the tracks that aren’t favorable to me. The three races in a row went well, I won another race, and for this reason I think that we can do a good race in Valencia! I am confident!” Rossi added.

Taking victory here last year, Lorenzo is once again aiming for the top spot of the podium and possibly finishing second in the championship. He said, “Finally we face the last race of the championship and it’s always exciting to come back to Spain to close the season. We have already saved third position in the championship after the race in Sepang and I hope to fight for the win again in Valencia. I think this is a better track for our Yamaha M1 than Sepang. I won here last year and hopefully we get to try this again this year.

The second position of the championship is still a possibility, but I need to get the victory and wait to see what Valentino’s result will be like. I would like to close the championship in a better way than I started it, especially in front of the big crowd that always visits us in Valencia!” Lorenzo added.

Suzuki will also make a return to MotoGP paddock this weekend with the Japanese manufacturer set to line up their all-new GSX-RR with test rider Randy De Puniet making a wild-card appearance in Sunday’s race before the machine is handed over to 2015 factory Suzuki riders Maverick Viñales and Aleix Espargaro who will take part in the post race test.

Team boss Davide Brivio is excited to get started with the team’s race programme and speaking ahead of the weekend he said, “Suzuki has a long racing history and it is exciting to be part of the comeback,” enthused Brivio. “I am aware that the competition are very strong and they have kept racing while Suzuki stepped away for almost three seasons, so we need to catch-up and recover the gap and also learn as much as possible to get to their level. The target is to be in a position to challenge our competitors as soon as we can. Let’s start the challenge!”