Marquez and Pedrosa positive ahead of Argentinian challenge

  Repsol Honda Team looking forward to second round of the season at Termas de Rio Hondo, after taking important step forward in Qatar.

• Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa achieved a podium double in the opening race at Termas de Rio Hondo, in 2014.
• Marc Marquez has set the best time in practice in the two previous visits to the Argentinian track.
• Dani Pedrosa took second place on the podium at the first visit to Termas de Rio Hondo, but missed last year’s race with an injured forearm. 

The MotoGP World Championship arrives in Argentina this week for the second round of the season. After the podium finish by Marc Marquez at the Qatar Grand Prix and the improvement shown by the two Repsol Honda Team riders in the opening event, the next challenge for Marquez and teammate Dani Pedrosa comes at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. The pair have previously shared the podium in Argentina in the inaugural event held at the track in 2014, and Marquez has set the best time in practice on both visits there. It will be the first time the riders compete at a track where they did not test this past winter, after an intense preseason that took in Sepang, Philip Island and Losail, and the goal will be to adapt as soon as possible –in order to be competitive once again in Sunday's race.

 Marc Marquez:

 "We come to Argentina in a positive mood after achieving a third-place finish in Qatar, a result that wasn’t really predictable before the start of the season. We worked very hard and very well with Honda and with the team over the weekend, and on race day I was able to push as hard as is currently possible. Of course we haven’t had a winter test here to count on and we’ll have to see if the setup we found in Qatar will also work here. That would be a good step forward for us, generally speaking, and we could even aim for a little bit better result on Sunday. Of course it will be a question mark until Friday but all in all, Argentina is a circuit that I like. We’ve always been fast here, so I feel positive for the weekend."

Dani Pedrosa:

“At the Qatar GP, we made a consistent step forward with the setup compared to the winter test. We improved our pace and I was able to maintain it during the race, with good consistency. The positives were that my arm worked well at a track that has proven challenging in that respect in the past, and that we were able to learn more about the new bike. But it’s still not enough; we need to improve the riding position, the way the bike behaves on the track and the setup in general in order to find better speed, because at the moment the gap to the leaders is still too big. That will be our target for Argentina. I didn’t race here last season but I have good memories of the track from 2014, I like the layout and I hope we’ll be able to take another step.”