Repsol Honda Team's Spanish rider Marc Marquez exits Village Corner during the third free practice session of the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, southern England, on August 26, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / OLI SCARFF (Photo credit should read OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images)

This weekend's Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini will be the thirteenth round of the 2017 MotoGP season, the championship moving into the third and final sector of the year. It only feels like yesterday that the opening round took place under the blazing lights in Qatar, but we have certainly been kept on our toes throughout.

Never before has the title chase been as tight as it is right at this moment, with the top five riders covered by only 35 points after 12 races. Sadly, Valentino Rossi, who is one of those riders, has now lost hope of adding to his tally in the next few events due to injuries sustained in a training accident last week.

Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez however, lost the lead in the title fight to Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso last time out when his Honda engine let go in Silverstone.

While this may be the Italian's home event this weekend, Marc, who is now nine points behind, is looking forward to again fighting at the front at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, a track where he has a great record and where, on 20 August, he spent his fifth and final allotted day of private testing for the year.

At this event, Marc already has 4 wins to his credit, 1×125 (2010), 2xMoto2 (2011, 2012), and 1xMotoGP (2015), plus 1 podium and 3 pole positions.

“We'll try and have a great weekend in Misano, putting the last race behind us,” he said. “The important thing is that lately we've been competitive at all kinds of tracks, so now we go to Misano, which has a twisty, tight layout, with the same approach and mentality that have worked very well for us so far.”

“We'll look to be as strong as possible, not with victory as the only target but ready to fight for it if we have the opportunity to do so. We'll work to get the best result possible. We had a positive test there in August, so we'll go there ready to start well beginning on Friday morning.”