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In one Brno corner, we have eight premier-class Grand Prix starts, four wins, seven podiums, four pole positions and 165 points. In the other, 11 Brno starts, no wins, two podiums, one pole and 81 points. <\/p>\n
The former is Marc Marquez. The latter? Every other rider in the top 10 of this year\u2019s standings combined ahead of round nine of the season.<\/p>\n
MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/p>\n
\u2018MAYBE I\u2019M TOO DUMB\u2019<\/a> MotoGP boss baffled by one-bike proposal, Hungary out for \u201927<\/p>\n 50 RACES, 0 DOUBTS<\/a> Why Spaniard\u2019s stocks remain sky-high ahead of milestone<\/p>\n Which is why, for all of the 33-year-old Spaniard\u2019s downplaying about his chances of back-to-back Grand Prix wins after taking his 100th world championship victory in Hungary last time out<\/a>, Marquez has to be the favourite, his physical limitations be damned. <\/p>\n His Brno history demands it. <\/p>\n From his first MotoGP visit to the undulating track on the outskirts of Czechia\u2019s second-largest city \u2013 which he won in 2013 \u2013 Marquez has always been in the mix at Brno. He\u2019s failed to finish on the podium just once, and that came in 2014 when he was fourth. <\/p>\n Marquez took his first Brno MotoGP win as a 20-year-old in his 2013 rookie season after a battle with Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa. (Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n For all of his accolades at anti-clockwise tracks like Balaton Park a fortnight ago \u2013 think the Sachsenring (nine wins), Aragon and the Circuit of the Americas (seven wins each) and Phillip Island (four) \u2013 Brno has arguably been his strongest circuit of those that turn predominantly right, his \u2018wrong\u2019 side. <\/p>\n Marquez is still far from 100 per cent for Brno after only coming back two rounds ago from hurried right shoulder and right foot surgeries after crashing in the sprint race at Le Mans in May. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful track that I like a lot \u2026 but it\u2019s also really tough and demanding,\u201d he said in the lead-up to this weekend. <\/p>\n What\u2019s even tougher? Making a case for anyone else as the rider to beat ahead of Brno, partly because of a confluence of form and timing. <\/p>\n Brno dropped off the calendar from 2021-24, the sport\u2019s schedule changing shape in the post-pandemic years and after protracted disputes over a needed resurfacing of the 5.4km track and \u2013 more pertinently \u2013 who paid for it. <\/p>\n Martin wipes out 5 riders in mass crash! | 00:53<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s return of one of the championship\u2019s more popular rounds \u2013 more than 219,000 fans packed the hillsides across three days \u2013 doubled as the first Brno MotoGP outing for some of the sport\u2019s main players, an anomaly that simultaneously shows the changing face of the sport and Marquez\u2019s longevity at the sharp end of it. <\/p>\n Marco Bezzecchi (this year\u2019s championship leader), Jorge Martin (second), Fabio Di Giannantonio (third), Pedro Acosta (fourth), Ai Ogura (sixth), Raul Fernandez (eighth) and Fermin Aldeguer (10th) had never raced a premier-class Grand Prix at Brno until last year. <\/p>\n Francesco Bagnaia and Alex Marquez at least had history from 2019-20, but scant results. <\/p>\n While Bagnaia (pole), Bezzecchi (second) and Acosta (third) all made their mark last July, Marquez won the sprint, won the Grand Prix, took fastest lap and banked a full suite of 37 points for the fifth event running<\/a>. It was even more emphatic than his first win there, a remarkable 12 years previously. <\/p>\n While Marquez\u2019s rivals might yet have brilliance at Brno in their futures, any success is more theoretical than actual, more unknown than perennially proven.<\/p>\n That Czech double was part of a run that set up a stroll to the 2025 title for the Spaniard, and one that was predicted to continue this year before pre-season injury recovery and in-season injury setbacks threw a spanner in the works. <\/p>\n Marquez sits 72 points behind Bezzecchi and in fifth overall heading to Brno, but with 13 rounds still to go, there\u2019s always time. <\/p>\n Making the most of the tracks where his achievements eclipse everything anyone else can boast will be a significant pillar of any recovery mission. Brno \u2013 with the Sachsenring, Aragon, Misano and Phillip Island\u2019s last hurrah in October still to come \u2013 shapes as step one. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s your Friday form guide and predictions for the ninth round of the 2026 MotoGP season, with the 21-lap Czech Grand Prix set for 10pm (AEST) on Sunday after the 10-lap sprint race at 11pm Saturday (AEST). <\/p>\n Marquez overcomes Q2 crash to win sprint | 00:56<\/p>\n MILLER LEFT OUT OF YAMAHA TEST AS SCRAMBLE FOR SEAT LOOMS<\/p>\n Jack Miller has publicly acknowledged that his MotoGP future is set to be outside of Yamaha, with the Australian being overlooked for Monday\u2019s post-race test of the 850cc machines to be used in the 2027 championship.<\/p>\n PIT TALK PODCAST: Michael and Matt ponder if Lewis Hamilton is in the F1 title fight after his breakthrough for Ferrari in Barcelona, and discuss why we still don\u2019t know the result of the Monaco podium more than a week after the race. Listen to Pit Talk now<\/a><\/p>\n Each manufacturer can nominate two riders for Monday\u2019s test of the new prototypes at Brno, with Yamaha electing to use Miller\u2019s Pramac Racing teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu, the only one of Yamaha\u2019s four riders to have a contract for 2027, and test rider Augusto Fernandez. <\/p>\n Factory Yamaha stablemate Fabio Quartararo, who is set to join Honda next year, and the 2021 world champion\u2019s teammate Alex Rins, who has no MotoGP ride for 2027, were also parked for Monday\u2019s test. <\/p>\n Miller, whose seat at Pramac is likely to go to rising Moto2 Spaniard Izan Guevera for 2027<\/a>, confirmed on Thursday that his offer to ride at Monday\u2019s test was turned down, and openly discussed his search for a ride elsewhere to extend his time in the premier class to a 13th season. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have a job \u2026 [Yamaha] don\u2019t see the need for it,\u201d he said of the 850cc test.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to keep things positive and keep things professional, try to give my honest feedback. I\u2019m still trying multiple different things that nobody is trying on this bike, but it is what it is. I\u2019ve never once turned down an item to test. Never once turned down letting my teammate follow me. <\/p>\n \u201cI try to be as professional and as open as possible. If they don\u2019t see the value in that, then that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller reiterated his desire to continue racing rather than accept a test rider role once this season concludes. <\/p>\n \u201cMuch as I like developing motorbikes, I don\u2019t like riding around and around in circles,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at our options [for the future]. The last couple of years have not been easy. I don\u2019t enjoy riding around fighting with the other Yamahas in 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th. I\u2019m looking to make the correct decision to get back to enjoying racing. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t enjoy riding a motorbike in 15th. I enjoy riding a motorbike fighting on the last lap for victories, fighting for the podium, not one point. We\u2019ll see what the future holds, but at the end of the day we still have a lot of racing to go in this season.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still enjoying my job, I love my job. I look forward to that feeling of the unknown when the lights go out. I didn\u2019t know we were going to be in the top 10 [in Hungary, where he finished a season-best eighth]. That\u2019s why I love racing so much.\u201d<\/p>\n With most team line-ups confirmed for 2027 \u2013 but not yet announced as the MotoGP manufacturers and promoters edge closer to a deal to run the series for the next five years that could be announced as soon as this weekend \u2013 Miller\u2019s potential landing spots are limited. <\/p>\n Having already ridden for Honda, Ducati, KTM and Yamaha across his 206-race MotoGP career, the 31-year-old\u2019s best and perhaps only longshot chance would be at Trackhouse Aprilia, who will lose Ai Ogura to Yamaha next season and are yet to re-sign incumbent rider Raul Fernandez. <\/p>\n The team owned by American Justin Marks is thought to prefer a native English-speaking rider to likely join Italian Enea Bastianini, who has been linked with Aprilia after two mostly underwhelming seasons at KTM since making way for Marc Marquez at the factory Ducati team. <\/p>\n Miller comes to Brno off a season-best eighth place at Balaton Park a fortnight ago (Pramac Racing Ltd)Source: Supplied<\/p>\n MARQUEZ SOUGHT VISION OF HORROR CRASH AHEAD OF RETURN<\/p>\n Ducati\u2019s Alex Marquez has revealed he immediately watched a replay of the enormous crash that red-flagged the Catalan Grand Prix in May<\/a> and left him with a broken right collarbone and a fractured vertebrae in his neck, with the Spaniard passed fit to return at Brno this weekend.<\/p>\n MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/p>\n