MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez has said up to five riders have the pace to win tomorrows Czech Grand Prix at Brno.

The Spaniard will start behind Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi on the outside of the front row of the grid in third place. Despite the third place start, Marquez expects both Dovizioso and Rossi to challenge for the victory, with the factory Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo and Suzuki of Andrea Iannone to also be in the mix.

“A few riders have good pace, Andrea (Iannone), of course Dovi, worked with a lot of laps in the tyres and then when he put in a new tyre he was fast,” said Marquez.

“But we were there, both Ducati riders are fast, Iannone will be fast, Valentino on paper now is a little bit far, but on Sunday always is there, so will be a tough race. But the most important is we are there.

“This championship is really long, tomorrows race will be very long and so hot, so it will be important to be there and then fight until the end.”

Disappointed not to claim his 49th MotoGP pole position in his one-hundredth race, Marquez said his main target was to be on the front row and with his bike more set up for tomorrows 21-lap race and not a single fast lap.

“I’m happy because the main target was the front row,” he said. “I knew before qualifying that it would be difficult because with the new tyre and also the electronics and the base map, is related to the race map.

“We didn’t make any special modifications and I maybe with the soft tyre we need more in a few places. Apart from that we did a great job, especially in FP4, I felt good this morning and I felt strong on the pace, so this is the most important.

“We are there, it is a circuit that maybe we suffer a little bit but even like this we are close to the fastest guy that for me is Dovi, we are there, we will try and fight for the victory and of course if it’s not possible then we will try the podium.”