As the world continues to work together and adapt to new ways of life, Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez arrive in Jerez for the start of the MotoGP World Championship.
When the lights go out on Sunday 19 July, it will be 245 days since the MotoGP World Championship kicked off at the Valencia GP at the end of the season. Since then, the world has gone through difficult times and people around the world have come together to bring life back to normal. Thanks to these efforts, normality and with it the race will return.
The Gran Premio Red Bull de España is the second round of the 14-lap MotoGP World Championship 2020, in which the Moto2 and Moto3 classes have already run in Qatar. The teams and drivers have a unique schedule for the first race with a test day on Wednesday after the long break, before the traditional Grand Prix weekend format begins on Friday.
The reigning world champion Marc Marquez arrives in Jerez to reunite with his team and to drive the Honda RC213V again after a positive test in Qatar. At the Jerez Circuit, Marquez has taken three premier class wins and never made the podium on his seven previous visits as a MotoGP rider. With the third round of the 2020 championship also taking place in Jerez a week later, a productive week will be important to keep the momentum going with a solid base.
For rookie Alex Marquez, the wait for the race seemed to take longer as the reigning Moto2 world champion was forced to postpone his premier class debut. His first preseason with the Repsol Honda Team was to have impressive times during the Sepang test and to make steady progress in Qatar. After extending his agreement with HRC for another two years, Alex plans to make further progress on the opening weekend and wait to see what will happen in the race on Sunday.
In addition, both riders on the Repsol Honda team will wear special helmets dedicated not only to the hard work of key employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to everyone else who changed their lives to follow the new guidelines and limit the spread. The helmets will be auctioned off after the weekend, with the process going to Cruz Roja Responde.