Alex Marquez returns to scene of his best MotoGP race

Less than a year ago, Alex Marquez delivered the best performance of his rookie MotoGP season at Aragon as he charged from eleventh on the grid to claim what would be Honda's only dry podium of the season.

And it was very nearly a race victory, with the Moto2 champion crossing the line just 0.263s behind Suzuki race winner Alex Rins.

Fast forward to 2021 and, having been moved from Repsol Honda to LCR, the younger of the Marquez brothers is yet to threaten his podium form of last year.

The Spaniard has scored just 49 points from the twelve rounds so far (best finish of sixth) which compares with 67 points at the same stage of last season.

An Aragon revival this weekend would thus be especially welcome, as Marquez seeks to build on an encouraging 17th to eighth place ride at Silverstone.

“MotorLand is a track that I personally like a lot," said Marquez, who has been an Aragon podium finisher in all three grand prix classes. "I have ridden many times here during Moto3 and Moto2 testing, something that always helps.

"And it is a track that I did well at from day one, I have achieved very good results on it in the past and in 2020 I was able to enjoy a lot riding the MotoGP bike.

"I think that what I could stand out the most about the track is that this time there will be fans on the grandstands, something that is always important. We will enjoy again a beautiful racing weekend.

"The track has turns of all kinds, so it demands a very well-balanced set-up. As we saw last year, tyre wear was quite high as it is a track where the left side of the tyre is heavily loaded with very strong accelerations, so you have to keep all that in mind.

"It's also an anti-clockwise circuit and I'm usually good at those, so I feel highly motivated.

"I looking forward to continuing the upward trend we have taken in the last few races. This summer we have taken a step forward and we were able to confirm it at Silverstone.

"We arrive here with good feelings, but our expectations are realistic.”

Marquez is currently 15th in the world championship, nine points behind team-mate and 2020 Aragon 2 pole qualifier Takaaki Nakagami. Like Marquez, Nakagami crashed out of last year's second Aragon round.