The Le Mans circuit according to Dani Pedrosa.
‘Is not a very complicated circuit, its basically made up by a straight, a closed corner and another straight. Its like coming and going’.
The mythical circuit of Le Mans, host to the legendary 24 Hours, saw last year Dani Pedrosas excellent performance, who after lapping large part of the race with the rear group, managed to finish third. Pedrosa thinks that the French circuit of Le Mans is not a very complicated circuit, its basically made up by a straight, a closed corner and another straight. Its like coming and going. The trick is to brake hard and to give gas immediately afterwards, therefore it is very important to have a good engine that allows you to exit the corners really fast. The first part of the layout is very amusing, especially the new long right-hand corner, just after the Dunlop bridge. There are also very expert spectators, theres a large tradition of motorsport in France. This is a Grand Prix with a lot of fans.
The 125cc race is always in group. I made a good start last year, but I had problems with the tyres and therefore stayed behind. I managed to overtake several riders during the last laps and finally finished third. The venue of the France Grand Prix in detail Five kilometres south of the city of Le Mans and 200 km southwest of Paris, the Le Mans Bugatti circuit was built in 1965 on the already existing and mythical 24-hour track, and was inaugurated one year later. Since its first Grand Prix in 1995, the Le Mans circuit has been remodelled several times, the most recent on 2002, which included a new link made up of fast corners between the Dunlop S and the de la Fôret S.
The lines of this technical 4305 m long circuit are not the way one would imagine at first glance and the corner entry substantially conditions the exit speed, making it different from many other layouts. Le Mans is a track made up of low speed corners (four left- hand and nine right-hand) and slow straights, the longest is about 450 m. It is a layout for machines with good acceleration and a brake stable chassis. This classic car-racing track has a capacity to comfortably accommodate up to 100,000 spectators and has been host to very important events such as the 24 Hour Truck race, the FIA 3000 Championship, the French Touring Car and several GT races.
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Repsol drivers on France Grand Prix 2002
Valentino Rossi: Pole: 1´36.046 / Race: (1º) 34.22.335. / Fastest lap: 1.36.846.
Fonsi Nieto: Pole: 1´38.903. / Race: (1º) 43.41.140 / Fastest lap: 1.39.663.
Toni Elías: Practice: (5º) 1.39.673. / Race: (6º) 43.54.29. / Fastest lap: 1.40.090.
Dani Pedrosa: Practice: (3º) 1.44.257. / Race: (3º) 42.09.633. / Fastest lap: 1´44.414.
