Reigning MotoGP Champion Marc Marquez arrives at the Motegi round this weekend with his first chance to wrap up the 2018 title for Honda.

The Spaniard's championship lead is now 77 points over nearest rival Andrea Dovizioso and 99 over Valentino Rossi, and at the end of the Japanese GP weekend, he needs only 75 to lift another big trophy.

With a maximum of 100 points available across the season’s remaining four races, Marquez needs to finish ahead of Ducati's Dovizioso or doesn’t lose more than two points to him, and if Rossi doesn’t win the race while Marc finishes out of the points).

Marquez has already won two of his four MotoGP World titles at Motegi, in 2014 and in 2016 - when he also took his first MotoGP win at the circuit.

“We have our first match ball at Honda’s home race, which is very important for our factory. Of course we’ll try to get the best result in front of Honda’s people and home fans, but Motegi is a stop-and-go track where strong acceleration is a key factor, so we’ll have to work hard and improve a little bit in that area if we want to fight with Ducati," he said.

"Otherwise, we’ll try to remain focused and calm and handle the situation as well as possible. The important thing is to ultimately achieve our goal at some point.”