MotoGP: The world championship lands in Europe, meeting in Jerez de la Frontera

Next Sunday the world championship lands in Europe, precisely in Jerez de la Frontera, where the third round of 2013 will take place. Thousands of fans are expected on the Spanish track and as usual will be the backdrop to the splendid Andalusian track. This year Spain can count on a "new" talent, we are talking about Honda rookie Marc Marquez, who already in the second race (in Austin) managed to climb to the top step of the premier class podium, taking away the rider record youngest to win a Grand Prix than Freddie Spencer. Already on Saturday the twice world champion (2010 in 125cc and 2012 in Moto2) had taken away another record from the American, that of the youngest rider in the premier class to obtain pole position.

Great Spain therefore with the Repsol Honda duo Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa and with Jorge Lorenzo, the current reigning champion of the category who this year shares the garage with the nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, on the podium in Qatar but in difficulty in Austin , Texas. Pedrosa (winner of the 2008 GP) after two races finished behind the "cabroncito" will want to redeem himself and a victory at home would be pure oxygen. However, he will have to deal not only with Marquez (who however has never won in Jerez even in the minor classes), but also with the Yamaha riders. Compatriot Jorge Lorenzo, who always finished ahead of Rossi in the first two races, will want to aim for victory at home, while Valentino Rossi is called to redemption after the dull performance at COTA.

The Pesaro rider had been very strong in the tests, although to be honest the fastest of all was Cal Crutchlow, with the Yamaha SAT of Team Tech 3. The British rider demonstrated in the first two races that he could go really fast and finish ahead of Rossi in Austin can only have motivated him even more. Yamaha seems to be the favourite, with three victories in the last four races, but this year Honda has started really strong and will certainly be the protagonist, perhaps also with Stefan Bradl, a Team LCR rider who is making a lot of progress.

Ben Spies will not be part of the "match", as he suffers from a shoulder injury and will be replaced by Michele Pirro, a Ducati tester. The former Team Gresini CRT rider has shown that he knows how to go fast and will therefore join the rookie Andrea Iannone astride the Desmosedici GP13 of Team Pramac. Andrea Dovizioso (the only one to go strong with the Ducati at the start of the season) and his team-mate Nicky Hayden are also called to a positive test, with the Borgo Panigale team having covered several KM of tests on the Andalusian track and therefore it could be more "advantaged" compared to Austin, where it started with the handicap of not having tested the way the official Honda and Yamaha riders did.

Among the CRTs, the clear favorite given his recent performances is Aleix Espargarò, who went very well in the first two races, even entering Q2 "directly" and also putting some prototypes behind him in the race. Of the Italians with the CRTs, the fight will always be between Claudio Corti and Danilo Petrucci, the former riding the FTR Kawasaki of Team NGM Mobile, the latter riding the Ioda Suter BMW of the Came IodaRacing Project.