Dani Pedrosa has the firm target of reducing the championship deficit to teammate Marc Marquez as the Repsol Honda Team duo head to Misano this weekend.

With 12 Grands Prix completed and six remaining in 2013, newcomer Marquez tops the standings by 30 which means he will continue to lead heading to Aragon, regardless of events in the upcoming San Marino race. With this firmly in mind, Pedrosa fully understand that he is in need of reducing the gap as soon as possible.

"I was slightly disappointed after Silverstone, as we knew we had the speed and race pace to challenge for victory," says Pedrosa. "Anyway, we must learn from the mistakes and move on. Misano is quite a tricky track and the grip level is always a challenge, but I enjoy riding there. I've had good results in the past, even if last year we experienced a nightmare on race day! This year we arrive confident and looking to reduce the points to Marc in the championship."

For Marquez, his pre-race aim has not differed and the 20-year-old’s left shoulder – which was dislocated in British GP Warm-Up – is now in better shape.

"I'm already feeling much better since my accident in Silverstone, so hopefully I'll be almost 100% by this weekend!" he begins.

"I will arrive in Italy for the race weekend a little later than usual, as I will use the time to have more physiotherapy on my shoulder. Misano has a lot of braking and is a smaller and slower track compared to others on the calendar, so it will be interesting to ride the MotoGP bike. Once again, the aim is to start to work like always: focusing on Sunday and preparing ourselves in the best way."

So far this year, Marquez has finished on the podium at every race bar the first event in Italy, staged at Mugello on 2nd June; on that occasion, an unforced error saw the Catalan crash out of second position while running ahead of his teammate.