MotoGP returns to action on Sunday with its traditional Qatar season-opening race with top names predicting this season promises to be the most competitive ever.
Doha's night-time desert event will raise the curtain on 19 races in 2018, which takes in Thailand for the first time, and eventually ends in Valencia, Spain in November.
Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi even claims as many as 10 riders are in with a title chance and said it was the most competitive grid he had seen as he begins his 23rd season.
“I think this season is the most balanced of Moto GP seasons ever,” Rossi, 39, who will be the oldest rider this year, told reporters at a joint press conference on Thursday.
Four-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez will be aiming for a third successive elite class world championship – and if he wins it will be the eighth time in nine years a Spanish rider has claimed the world crown – but he is expected to come under increasing pressure in 2018.
These include last year's second placed Andrea Dovizioso of Italy and Maverick Vinales, another Spaniard, who finished third in 2017, as well as the perennial challenge from Rossi.
Asked for his pre-season prediction, six-time world champion Marquez was reluctant to pick out a challenger.AFP
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