The tightest title battle in Grand Prix history reaches its halfway point in Germany on Sunday, when Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team RC213V) will fight to further close the gap on the championship lead.

Just 11 points separates the top four as the title chase reaches half-distance, which is a first in 69 years of premier-class Grand Prix racing. Marquez currently stands fourth overall, very much within striking distance of leader Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati).

The reigning MotoGP World Champion goes into this weekend’s Sachsenring following last Sunday’s breath-taking Dutch TT at Assen, where he played his part in a thrilling four-man battle for victory. A rain shower in the closing stages only added to the tension, Marquez easing his pace in the treacherous conditions to finish a strong third, a fraction of a second ahead of Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda RC213V) and Dovizioso.

So far this year Marquez has scored one victory – in April’s Grand Prix of the Americas – and three further podiums, including second and third at the last two races.

The 24-year-old has an astonishing record at the historic Sachsenring, which has been hosting Grand Prix racing on and off since the 1960s. He has won every race he has contested at the undulating venue since 2010: 125cc victory in 2010, Moto2 wins in 2011 and 2012 and MotoGP successes in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Last year’s victory in a wet/dry race was one of his greatest. Marquez switched to slicks when the track was still damp and slippery but was faster than anyone in the tricky conditions.

There are few racetracks where the five-times Word Champion hasn’t tasted success during his extraordinary career, but he is particularly strong at anti-clockwise circuits like the Sachsenring, most likely because he spends a lot of time training on dirt-track ovals, which run anti-clockwise.

However, Marquez knows as well as anyone that it’s impossible to make predictions for this weekend, firstly because this year’s Michelin tires seem to suit different riders at different circuits and secondly because the Sachsenring has been resurfaced for 2017.

Team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC213V) knows better than most that the tires work well for him at some circuits and not so well at others. The 31-year-old former 125cc and 250cc World Champion dominated May’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez and took podiums at COTA, Le Mans and Catalunya, but struggled at Mugello and Assen. Pedrosa, currently fifth overall, is by far the lightest rider on the grid, which can make it difficult for him to put enough load into the tires to generate heat and therefore grip.

When he has the grip he needs Pedrosa is super-fast at the Sachsenring. He has won six races at the track, the 250cc GP in 2004 and 2005 and the MotoGP race in 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012, which gives the Repsol Honda Team a clean sweep of the last seven German GPs.

Crutchlow also has good memories of the German round of the championship. He has twice finished runner-up at the Sachsenring, in 2013 and last year, chasing home Marquez on both occasions. The 31-year-old Briton, who last year scored his first two MotoGP victories, is riding superbly at the moment, with four top-five results so far this season, including fourth place at Assen, four-hundredths of a second behind Marquez.

Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) scored his best result of the year at Assen, coming home an excellent sixth. The 22-year-old Australian loves racing at the Sachsenring and is a winner at the circuit – he took German Moto3 honors in 2014. He was also in the hunt for MotoGP victory in last year’s rain-affected race, but dropped to seventh because he was one of the few riders who didn’t change to his spare bike fitted with slicks.

Miller’s team-mate Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) goes into round nine full of confidence after making a great recovery at Assen. The former Moto2 World Champion qualified 23rd in the rain and finished the race in 12th place.

This weekend’s German GP is the last of a grueling series of four GPs over five weekends. MotoGP commences its traditional summer break after Sunday’s racing and reconvenes at Brno for the Czech GP on August 6th.

Marc Marquez 93

“I look forward to going to the Sachsenring, a circuit that has proven to be good for us in the past. Of course we’ll have to wait and see how things go, as the track has been resurfaced and we know it can be quite different, starting with the grip, which will probably be higher compared to recent years. We must remain concentrated in order to be able to manage every situation as well as possible, like we did in Assen. In any case, it’s a circuit that I like and where I’ll try to be stronger. We’re just 11 points from Dovizioso at the top, and that’s good. This championship is really open, and we must keep calm and keep working hard to be better and better in the coming races.”

Dani Pedrosa 26

“Sachsenring is one of my favorite tracks on the calendar and we are going there ready to prepare for the race as best as possible. I honestly do not know what to expect from the resurfacing of the track as it’s difficult to make predictions before getting there but I hope to have a good feeling with the bike and the tires. We know as a team we are working well together and doing things right so we will continue with this mentality and try to understand how to make the tyres work better in every situation. The championship is still very close and I look forward to getting back on my bike on Friday and fighting for a good result on Sunday.”

Jack Miller 43

“I really enjoy racing at Sachsenring. It’s a different type of track but it’s one at which I’ve always gone well and one that I look forward to going to every year. There’s no atmosphere like it and it’s a race I probably should have won last year if I’d been a bit smarter about it. Sachsenring is a technical track and the tight corners that come back on themselves should suit our Honda quite well. Now we just need to see which tires we’ve been allocated for this round, as the track has been resurfaced since we were last there, so it’s a bit of an unknown quantity. Even so I’m looking forward to the weekend ahead with some confidence.”

Cal Crutchlow 35

“I’m looking forward to the Sachsenring – it was a great race for the whole team last year, so we’ll be working hard to get another podium. It’s a circuit that I like and obviously we all want to get a good result in the last race before the summer break, so we can go into the break in high spirits. Over the years the Sachsenring has been a great circuit for Honda, so we aim to be challenging at the front again.”

Tito Rabat 53

“We got caught out a bit at Assen in practice and qualifying, although we had a good race in the end. This makes me a little worried going to Sachsenring, as we need to be on the pace from the first practice onwards, not chasing set up as we were in Assen. The technical nature of the Sachsenring, with its predominantly slow and tight turns, should suit better our Honda so we need to work to the strengths of the bike this weekend. As always I go to German fully focused on the job at hand and looking for another point scoring a finish in the race.”