Bradl to replace Marquez at Czech MotoGP

Bengaluru, August 4: Test rider Stefan Bradl will join Alex Marquez in the Repsol Honda Team garrage for the Czech Grand Prix to be held at the Brno circuit on Sunday (August 9) after Marc Marquez was ruled out.

Earlier, MotoGP world champion Marquez had a second surgery in as many weeks to fix his broken arm.

The Spaniard had suffered the injury after a nasty crash in the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez circuit last month.

After a heroic return just four days after surgery in Jerez, Marquez will sit out of the second race in succession after missing the previous Andalucia GP, the Honda team confirmed in a tweet.

Fabio Quartararo, who won both the races at Jerez currently leads the truncated 2020 FIM MotoGP World Championship.

The Czech GP presents the first change of circuit for the season in the MotoGP class. 2019's Czech GP is remembered for Marquez's incredible qualifying lap, 2.5sec clear of second placed Jack Miller.

Weather forecasts suggest a clear weekend in the high 20s - a change from the punishing heat of Jerez. The weekend also marks the start of MotoGP's first triple-header of the revised 2020 season as two races at the Red Bull Ring succeed the weekend.

"First of all I want to wish Marc a speedy recovery, what he did in Jerez was incredible and he showed that he has the true spirit of a champion. It's a challenge I'm looking forward to. Competing with the Repsol Honda Team is always a great honour and I'm pleased to help Honda. Let's see how the weekend goes." said Bradl.

Bradl is no rookie to MotoGP. In 2019 the former Moto2 world champion competed in four premier class races with a best finish of 10th at his home Grand Prix in Germany.

"I'm looking forward to riding the Honda RC213V again, due to the global pandemic we haven't been able to test as we would normally so it'll take some time to adjust to the bike and MotoGP again but I've ridden the superbike a few times so I know my fitness is good," added Bradl, who has claimed three top ten finishes at Brno from his seven starts in MotoGP and only once missed out on points.