This weekend we move on to the Sachsenring in Germany just a week after Assen. We are back in Marc Marquez territory, where the Spaniard has won the past nine times he’s been at the track.

Last time out in Assen, Maverick Vinales was back on the top spot of the podium with his M1 Yamaha working a treat around the Cathedral of Speed. Marquez achieved his target goal for the weekend and got himself on the podium in second place. Fabio Quartararo finished third and got his second consecutive podium last time out in Assen.

Now MotoGP moves onto the Sachsenring where the track goes anti-clockwise and is full of left-hand corners. Marquez seems to love anti-clockwise tracks. He may be strong favourite going into the weekend but, as we saw in Austin earlier this year, anything can happen in the race.

Marquez has an impressive record at the track with nine poles and nine victories in nine races. He’s going for 10 in a row this year but the Spaniard is not taking anything for granted after what happened in Austin. He said: “Yeah I feel good, I feel good because we are in a very good position in the championship.

 “We’re in good form. Of course in Assen we did a really good weekend. It was one of our worst during practice but in the race we take 20 important points. We will see during the weekend. The opponents will show us the level, the target is to work in the best way, try to be competitive from the beginning and then we will see. Everyone expects a victory. Austin is the worst part on the calendar in the first part… We will try to be focused.”

Assen winner Vinales finished in third place last year at the Sachsenring but says Honda are the ones to beat: “I think Honda and Marc are the favourites, they are the ones to beat.

“We’ll try follow their speed, but it’ll be very difficult for sure. We’ll try and work in the same mentality as Montmelo and Assen, try be strong in every session and then you never know. In the race you never know, we’ll prepare for the race the best we can and then let’s see. But the motivation is there, I feel really good, I have nothing to lose so I’ll push to maximum.”

Another Yamaha on the charge is the Petronas Yamaha bike of Quartararo who got his second consecutive podium last time out in Assen and will be going for three in a row this weekend. He said: “First of all its good to be back on a race weekend. Assen was really positive for us. I struggle from mid-race to the end on my arm and for sure, to have back-to-back races isn’t the best for recovering but here almost all the corners are left. In Assen we take a rest from these type of corners, we will need to check in the first practice how the arm is but I think we will be ok.”

His teammate Franco Morbidelli will also be looking to have a strong race in Germany. He said: “Yes. Sachsenring is a track that somehow I have always been fast from the first year I was here, I don’t know why. But that was Moto2. We will see what will happen in MotoGP, I didn’t ride last year due to injury. As Fabio said and as you know I Yamaha works pretty well here so I am curious to see how the bike will react and how I will go at the track.”

Danilo Petrucci signed an agreement with Ducati to keep him at the team in 2020. The Italian led the German GP last year on his Pramac Ducati bike but narrowly lost out on the podium and finished in fourth place. This year he’ll be looking to finally get on the podium at the German GP, he said: “Last year I lost the podium by one-and-a-half laps because Maverick passed me. I was not able to defend because in acceleration I had a very poor tyre life left on the left side. I think this is the key for us to be fast by managing and saving the rear tyre.

“This track has not so many tight corners but some of them are quite long so I think we can fight for the podium, for sure it is very hard to beat Marc here, at least looking at the result of the last few years.”

Marquez heads into this round with a 44-point lead over closest rival Andrea Dovizioso in the Championship.

Action will get underway with MotoGP FP1 at 08:55 local time.