With barely a moment’s rest after the intense weekend in the United States, Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Márquez already have their sights set on getting back to work in San Marino this Friday. The Misano Adriatico track will be the scene of the season’s 12th race, where the Repsol riders will once again be looking to steal the show in their respective categories.
Last Sunday’s victory by Dani Pedrosa at the legendary Indianapolis track underlines the great current form of the Repsol rider and the team. Despite falling at Laguna Seca, he has been in the battle for first place on the podium week after week, with two victories and three seconds in the last six races. Yet it all starts from scratch again this weekend at San Marino, and after last year’s podium finish, the aim is to keep up the rhythm of the last few races and score the fourth victory of the season.
It will also be a special race for his Repsol Honda Team companion, Andrea Dovizioso, who lives barely 60 km from the Misano circuit and will see the San Marino GP as another ‘home’ tie, along with the race at Mugello -also just 100 km from Forlimpopoli, hometown of the Repsol rider-. With victory always in his sights, Dovizioso will be going into the race with the aim of returning to the podium and recovering the consistency that he displayed at the beginning of the season.
Such consistency will also be in the mind of Marc Márquez in the 125 event, who after two less-than-fortunate races, will also look to rejoin the podium at San Marino. The Repsol rider has made the most of the little rest time since Indianapolis to continue his recovery from the left-shoulder injury at the CAR Sant Cugat (High Performance Center). Leader in the overall standings, Marquez is aware of the importance to score in the remaining races, without letting up in the fight for victories, given that his lead in the classification is now negligible.
Dani Pedrosa
“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 qui te 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
“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”.
Marc Márquez
“I can’t wait for the weekend, because this is where we will have the chance to turn the page after the race at Indianapolis. The truth is it was a good weekend, except for the race, because I was always riding comfortably and the work that the team put in was excellent. At Misano, I hope to get a good result, because after the last two races, I think it’s our turn. It will be important to finish the race and not make any mistakes. It’s a track which last year, with the KTM, went well for me and I was able to finish fourth after a good weekend, so this year, although with the Derbi the past is the past, I hope everything goes well. I haven’t yet fully recovered the strength in my arm, but it’s no obstacle once I’m on the bike”.
