A press conference without a press opened the MotoGP World Championship last Thursday in Jerez. How rare these times. The championship's anti-coronavirus protocol for celebrating 13 races does not include cameras and microphones, and thus the classic first act became a series of questions from the organization itself, as always friendly, as always friendly. There was not much to highlight, just a game. The favorites for the title were given a blackboard and asked to write their forecast about the final classification of the World Cup: they had to choose five names and obviously they could proclaim themselves champions. Marc Márquez did it, of course, but the rest only Maverick Viñales and Álex Rins dared whileFabio Quartararo, Valetino Rossi, Jack Miller or Pol Espargaró pointed to Márquez himself.

It was the most obvious forecast. After six titles in seven years in MotoGP, the leader of the Repsol Honda team is once again the top favorite, the benchmark, the man to beat, but the exceptional nature of this season puts him at risk. With seven tests less than normal, the margin of error is smaller. Without some of its fetish circuits like Austin or Sachsenring it doesn't have as many assured victories.

Márquez himself knows of the danger of a bad start, of a couple of falls and, therefore, from this very Saturday, in the classification of the first Grand Prix in Jerez, competitiveness was exaggerated. The three men that the champion had pointed out, that is, he, Quartararo and Viñales locked themselves in a polemic fight without concessions, as if they had more importance than they do, as if they were granting points. Thanks to the high temperatures and soft tires, you were able to fly and, below the track record, they did. Márquez made the best time, Quartararo answered, then Viñales and so on until Quartararo himself, with the stopwatch already stopped, completed an almost perfect lap. After celebrating the last two poles of last season, the Frenchman kept the streak going, although again his challenge will be to keep up the pace this Sunday (14.00, DAZN) in the race.

"I made a mistake at turn 11 and I thought that the lap was not that good. Marc is above everyone in terms of pace, but I will try to fight him, to be as close as possible," said Quartararo, who the year he comes will make the jump to the official Yamaha team to share a garage with Viñales. This, in fact, finished second this Saturday, while Márquez had to settle for third place: "My goal was to be on the front line and I have fulfilled it. The Yamaha are very fast one lap, but tomorrow will be a very different race, very tough, very demanding on the tires. "

Of the rest of the protagonists, the eighth place of Andrea Dovizioso stood out, who arrived touched after his clavicle injury a few weeks ago, the eleventh of Rossi and the penultimate position of Alex Márquez who, in his first race in MotoGP, will score as the sole objective .

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