Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez will resume battle this weekend at Brno.

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez is predicting a strong challenge from Yamaha at Brno in the Czech Republic this weekend after both Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi tested at the venue recently.

Marquez, despite his current form coming off three consecutive wins, does not believe he is the favourite for this weekend.

“It’s an important moment of the season,” the Spanish rookie said. “It looks like Yamaha will be strong here because they have already done a test, especially Jorge looking strong; but we will see and try to do our best here and beat them.

“Every race will be close, with everybody fighting to be in front. We will see. At the remaining races the championship is quite close with many, many points left – still nearly half a season in front of us.”

Lorenzo on the other hand, despite having tested at this track during the summer with his teammate Valentino Rossi, is adamant that the Hondas remain the bikes to beat, and that he needs to get back to winning ways as soon as possible.

“It’s not so simple,” he said. “I don’t think we’re the favourites at any race at the moment, but I do think this track will be good for my riding and the Yamaha…We didn’t crash at Indianapolis and got a podium after some weeks without it.

“Now, if we want to win this world title, we have to win as soon as possible. At the moment it’s not so simple, but we’re going to try.”

Marquez currently leads the world championship by 21 points entering Brno’s 11th round of the season.