It will be the thirteenth event in the calendar and, as at Silverstone Circuit, the MotoGP riders will take to the spectacular Alcañiz City of the Motor track for the first time on their competition bikes. Both Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso have already had the opportunity to ride the circuit at the controls of Honda road bikes, to familiarise themselves with the track and, despite expecting good feelings, are conscious of the work that remains ahead starting on Friday as, when at the controls of the Repsol Honda RC212V 2010, all initial impressions will radically change.
To be able to fine tune the set-up, the organisation has planned for the Friday practice sessions to be divided into two free outings of 40 minutes, one in the morning and the other at midday. In this time, more than the usual Saturday practices, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso must do enough to go into Sunday´s race as prepared as possible, with the objective of another week of fighting for victory, a victory that the Spanish rider has already achieved on four occasions this season.
In the 125cc class, even though Márquez was able to ride his usual Derbi RSA for two days in July, the Repsol rider has a new challenge in front of him in his battle for the small cylinder World Championships. The leader of the category, winner of the last event, had the best first outing at the Aragon track, although, having seen how easily things can change on race day, like in the Czech Republic or United States, he is very focussed and ready to tackle his next meeting with the Spanish public, step by step.
Dani Pedrosa
“I’m looking forward to arriving at MotorLand Aragon and trying the new track on the RC212V. I did some laps in July with a Honda CBR1000RR street bike and I really enjoyed the layout – I loved the circuit. It’s very different to the ones we are used to racing at in the MotoGP championship, and so it will be really interesting this weekend. The circuit combines fast and slow corners which are quite technical, and the last straight and finish line section is going to be amazing. There are also some blind turns where you need to look for references outside the track. The facilities are very high spec and it looks like the fans are in for a treat at this race. It’s always very nice to race in Spain and I can imagine that the atmosphere will be incredible; I’m looking forward to meeting the Spanish fans again. Me and the team also arrive in a very good mood thanks t o the great job we have been doing and our good results in the last races. It will be a challenge for everybody this weekend and we need to make the most of the practice sessions – in this area we have improved a lot in the second part of the season. Our bike has been working well at very different circuits, so I hope we can also do a good job in Aragon. I’m really looking forward to this Grand Prix”.
Andrea Dovizioso
“I always enjoy the challenge of racing on a new track where no one has prior knowledge and we can all start from zero, so I’m especially looking forward to this race weekend. I had the chance to do some laps on a CBR1000RR last week which was good fun and let me learn the basic layout and get some ideas on how to start the machine set-up for the RC212V on Friday. It was actually the first time for me riding on a track with a street bike, and I enjoyed it. The Aragon track is really nice, it has a lot of elevation changes and many of the braking areas occur where the bike is leaning over, which makes it quite technical and means there are many points where it should be possible to overtake. Because of this I think we will see a very good race. For us it is important to have an idea of the track in advance to give us a head start with the set-up of the RC212V. We are very determin ed to score a good result in Aragon. At Misano and in the previous races we have been fast and close to the front, but now we need to take the final step and convert that speed into a strong result at the end of the race. This is the target for the weekend”.
Marc Márquez
“This weekend, we are coming to a circuit which is new for everyone, although we had the chance to test there in July and we saw that it was a fun track which could be good for me. We did some good work and have a good base to start from although I hope the weather is kind to us because it looks like the first practice sessions could be in the rain. I’m really fired up after the San Marino win and, above all to race again in front of the fans in our country. We know that all races are important, already proved by the Czech Republic and Indianapolis, so we take on the remaining grands prix step by step, each time with a different ending.”
