Grand Prix motorcycle racing returns to the Silverstone circuit this weekend as round five of the 2010 World Championship takes MotoGP back to one of its historic venues. The Repsol Honda Team is determined to mark this special occasion by building on their success at the last race in Italy two weeks ago where Dani Pedrosa won the race and Andrea Dovizioso joined him for an emotional visit to the podium.
A confident Pedrosa comes to Silverstone fresh from his Mugello masterclass - an event where he dominated the race meeting by taking pole position, the race victory and setting a new lap record along the way. His first win of the 2010 season has promoted him to second position in the World Championship behind Jorge Lorenzo, and Pedrosa’s goal this weekend will be to reduce the 25-point gap to his fellow countryman. After a start to the 2010 season that hasn’t been without its problems, Pedrosa is growing ever-more satisfied with the performance from his Honda RC212V and now looks poised to genuinely launch his challenge for the World Championship.
His team-mate Dovizioso has made by far the best start to a season of his MotoGP career - with three podium finishes from four races - and the Italian is now determined to take the next step forward and fight for race wins. Dovizioso’s average gap to the race winner in the first four rounds of 2010 has been less than 10 seconds at the chequered flag, and the 24-year-old knows that a few tenths of a second per lap are all he needs to be fighting for victory. Britain would be the perfect place to make that step because it was at the British Grand Prix last year - then held at the Donington Park circuit - that Dovizioso took his maiden MotoGP win with a perfectly judged ride in treacherous and ever-changing conditions on a damp circuit.
Silverstone first became the venue for the British Grand Prix in 1977 - the year after the Isle of Man TT ceased to be a round of the Road Racing World Championship. The circuit hosted the race until 1986, after which the British Grand Prix moved to Donington Park from 1987 to 2009. Honda machines were victorious in the last three races held at Silverstone before the switch to Donington, with wins from Randy Mamola in 1984, Freddie Spencer in 1985 and Wayne Gardner in 1986. Though there have been several layout changes and resurfacing work since then, Silverstone remains a fast and daunting circuit, and the Repsol Honda riders are relishing the challenge of repeating that historic success for Honda this weekend.
DANI PEDROSA – World Championship position 2nd 65 points
“We arrive at Silverstone in good shape after the victory in Mugello. We had a very good weekend in Italy and myself and the team need to make the most of it to maintain this momentum. I cannot say much about Silverstone. I’ve seen some races on video from the past to check the circuit a little bit, but they have made some changes and I think the layout is also a bit different compared to Formula One, so we will need to find out for ourselves. From what I’ve seen I can say it’s a fast circuit, high speed overall, with many right-hand corners which are taken with the throttle open. It looks like an old-fashioned circuit, maybe comparable to Assen before they shortened it. We will start on Friday without prior knowledge, but it’s the same for everyone so I hope we can adapt as quickly as possible to prepare for the race. We will have three races in a row now - Britain, Holland and Catalunya - and it will be very important not to make mistakes and to maintain consistency in the results.”
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – World Championship position 4th 58 points
“I’m really excited to go to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. We used to race at Donington Park, which was a track that I really liked and where only myself and Valentino had won in all the Grand Prix classes - 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP. But despite this I’m very much looking forward to Silverstone. It’s a new track for everyone and we have no previous reference data for the circuit, which gives us one more challenge for the race weekend. From the layout, it seems a very fast track and this could be favourable for our RC212V, but we will have to wait and see first hand to get a true idea of how we’re going to perform. We arrive at this race in very good shape, with three podiums from four races, and we’re feeling especially good after the podium at Mugello - my home race - because this was really significant for me. Now we have to take another step forward because on Sunday I want to fight for the win.”
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