MotoGP riders ready for battle in Barcelona

Bengaluru, June 14: Exactly 70 years since the FIM MotoGP World Championship began, the riders return back to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for the seventh round of the series.

Before bikes are on track in the Catalan GP on Sunday (June 16), it was time to talk with as many as seven riders taking centre stage in the pre-event press conference.

The track action begins on Friday (June 14) and lights will be out for the MotoGP race on Sunday at at 2pm local time (5.30pm IST).

"Of course I'm happy to arrive in this way to our home GP and yeah after Mugello, you know we arrive in a great moment because normally in Mugello we struggle, this year we struggled but we were there so we'll see here. In the last years Ducati were very fast, so they'll be fast again this year! But we'll try to do our best and the target is try to work in our garage and on Sunday try to be on the podium. If we've a small chance at the victory we'll try," said world champion Marc Marquez.

Marquez confident

"For me, both the Ducati riders are contenders in the Championship, strong and good opponents, Dovizioso is only 12 points behind me, Danilo 33, everything is very tight, including Rins. We need to keep going try to push and work in the same way as this first part of the season because I feel really good and really confident," the Repsol Honda rider added.

Dovizioso positive

Dovizioso, who won at the venue two years ago also sounded quite upbeat.

"For sure 12 points behind Marc at this moment is really positive, we've more points than last year, we've been consistent, but we want to get back to winning because if you want to fight with Marc you've to win some races. He's always there and on a bay day he's still on the podium and he's able to try and win the race."

Incredible Rins

Rins, who is third in the Championship, spoke about his chances.

"Well for sure we had an incredible race. When I finished I was very...I thought I was able to win! I fought with all the Ducatis and Hondas but we already knew we would suffer. Positive is we finished less than one second off the win, I enjoyed it a lot, overtaking these guys a lot and it was very fun."

Petrucci cautious

The man who eventually won in Mugello, Danilo Petrucci, talked through the incredible weekend.

"I just started to think that Mugello was the first of good racing. The last three races we always fought for the podium and we want to continue like this. I think here will be more difficult than Mugello, we are four maybe six riders who can fight for the win every race."

(By a special arrangement with Dorna Sports)