The Repsol Honda Team arrives at the Misano circuit in Italy this week in high spirits after Dani Pedrosa’s dominant win in the Indianapolis Grand Prix on Sunday. With the Spaniard’s consummate Indy performance showcasing both his outright speed and peak physical condition, plus the impressive all-round strength of the RC212V race bike, the factory Honda team will be satisfied with nothing less than another visit to the top step of the podium for Pedrosa or his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso this weekend.
Pedrosa is in confident mood as the MotoGP World Championship returns from the United States to Europe, his emphatic third victory of the season at Indianapolis having taken him past his record of two MotoGP wins in each of the four previous seasons. The 24-year-old now plans to take full advantage of the momentum he has established in the last few races by getting straight back on the pace from first practice at Misano on Friday afternoon. Pedrosa led the first seven laps of last year’s San Marino Grand Prix before taking a podium finish, and this year he is determined to stay up front for the duration of the race, fight for victory this weekend and further reduce the 68-point gap to leader Jorge Lorenzo in the world championship standings.
Dovizioso too will be truly satisfied with nothing less than a win at his home Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Italian lives in Forli only 70kms from Misano and would enjoy nothing more than taking his second ever MotoGP victory in front of his many friends and fans, or and at least scoring a podium finish to add to the four he has already amassed this season. Dovizioso holds third place in the world championship behind his team-mate and has displayed front-running pace in the early laps at the last two Grands Prix. He and his crew are now looking for the final ingredient so that he can maintain that speed right to the chequered flag.
DANI PEDROSA – World Championship Position 2nd – 183 points
“We are at a very competitive moment right now and three wins so far this year is more than I had in my previous MotoGP seasons. It’s a nice milestone to pass and so I’m feeling very confident for the next races. Indianapolis was great and it was very satisfying to win such a physically demanding race, however, we don’t have so much time to recover before Misano this weekend. Having said that, we’ll be ready. The team is in a good mood and we have proved that we can be competitive for many races in a row, so we want to continue this form. Misano has been a difficult circuit for Honda in the last few years but this time we will try to do the best possible job and be right at the front once again. It’s a track with many linked slow corners where you need a very agile bike and also a smooth power delivery, whereas our engine is very strong but can also be quite aggressive which causes the bike to slide. So we’ll have to do a very good job to find the right setting and get good traction - as we did in Indianapolis. It’s not so much a power circuit as one which requires good driveability from the engine. The gap in the championship to Lorenzo is still very big and he has been very consistent, so our goal for the rest of the season is simply to continue being competitive at every GP and give ourselves the chance to win races, starting with another one this weekend.”
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – World Championship Position 3rd – 126 points
“We arrive in Misano in very determined mood; our target is the podium. In Indianapolis we were fast during the race weekend but we couldn’t maintain consistent speed for the whole race distance and this is something we must work on and improve. Now we need to score some strong results. The Misano track is short and twisty and there are a lot of bumps, but after Indianapolis we are certainly used to bumps and I’m look forward to race there. I’m confident. Misano is a special track for me, not only because it’s my home GP - in fact I live only 70kms away - but because I raced my first “real” race bike there in 2000. It was my debut on a proper race machine - it was 125cc - after having raced pocket bikes up to that point. I remember that it was an incredible experience, and at that moment I had the feeling that something big and special was happening. In last year’s MotoGP weekend here I raced for the first time with Ohlins suspension and I came home fourth, which was a respectable result. So I’m feeling very positive about this GP because compared to last year we have progressed a lot.”
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