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This weekend’s opening round of the MotoGP season in Qatar will be one of the more challenging rounds for Repsol Honda, according to reigning champion Marc Marquez.

The Spaniard has only won once in the premier class at Losail Circuit back in 2014. Last year he claimed fourth position at the flood-lit opener on his way to a fourth MotoGP crown.

“I’m really excited that the first race to has finally arrived,” Marquez said. “It looks like it’ll be a very competitive season, starting from the first race here in Qatar. Having tested here so recently, we know there are several riders who are already very fast, within only two to three hundredths, so the race could be exciting and anything can happen on Sunday. We’ve also worked well during the winter tests and now we look forward to getting started.

“The Qatar round is a unique one compared to the others on the calendar and we’re aware that it’s not one of the easiest for us. Still, during the test we focused on trying to get as close as possible to the pace of our opponents on used tyres and at the moment we’re not that far off. It will be a long season and we’ll continue working on our bike’s set-up to try and make the best of every situation on race day.”

Marquez was seventh on combined times when the final official pre-season test concluded earlier this month in Qatar, 0.562s from overall pace-setter Johann Zarco on-board the satellite Monster Yamaha Tech3 entry.