Repsol Honda Team lands in France after a successful weekend in China.
The World Championship is back into action five days after the one-two finish in Shanghai with Dani Pedrosa clinching his first victory and Nicky Hayden second, his eighth consecutive podium finish.
The leader of the MotoGP overall standings, Repsol Honda Team rider Nicky Hayden, and his team mate, third in the standings, Dani Pedrosa will be back into action this weekend without having had hardly any time to become really aware of the success achieved at last week’s Grand Prix of China, where both young riders clinched a historical one-two finish for the team. For Dani Pedrosa, China was his fourth MotoGP Grand Prix and with no doubt it will be permanently fixed in the memory of the young Repsol rider given the fact that it was the day of his first victory in the premier class.
It was also an important race for team mate Nicky Hayden who clinched his eighth consecutive podium finish in the class. He is with no doubt the currently most regular rider of the championship, but the North American wants more and the second place was not enough for him. Because what Nicky really wants is to take victories as the one he clinched in the last USA Grand Prix. Despite his dissatisfaction for not having managed to take a single victory this season so far, Hayden keeps since Turkey the leadership in the overall standings, now with an advantage of 13 points over the second classified, Italian rider Loris Capirossi. After the victory in Shanghai, Dani Pedrosa has moved up several positions in the standings and is now, at his arrival in France, third overall, 15 points behind the leader.
In the 250cc. and 125cc classes, a big improvement is expected from the Repsol riders now that the World Championship is back in Europe; this is especially the case of Sebastián Porto and Bradley Smith. The first, retired in Shanghai while lapping in back positions, will have the chance to find solutions in France together with his team on a track where he did not manage to finish the race last year because of technical problems with his Aprilia. Young Bradley Smith, just as Shuhei Aoyama, will once again be facing the challenge of quickly learning another unknown circuit.
The venue of the GP:
Bugatti Le Mans circuit
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.
Official website: http://www.webac.net/gp/
Rider´s comments:
Dani Pedrosa:
‘Finally we come back to Europe! I’m really looking forward to these races, even though we haven’t had time to rest since the last round. It has been a tough start of the season but I’m happy with the results so far. After Shanghai I know that all the rivals will be trying to beat me and I’m waiting for their reaction, but my goal is the same: to focus on my job and forget what we did in Shanghai. Every race is different and we cannot be relaxed. Le Mans is very close to Spain so I hope to see a lot of my home fans there, as there are every year. Technically speaking, Le Mans is very different from Shanghai. This circuit has a lot of hard acceleration, a lot of hard braking sections and a very fast, long corner at the end of the straight. Having good drive at the exit of the corners is fundamental tomaking a fast lap. And the gearbox has to be very well set up.’
Nicky Hayden:
‘I’m looking forward to being back in Europe and the pace is always faster here because a lot of the riders are at home. Also the European crowds make it fun – these places really come alive on race day. Since they re-paved Le Mans the track’s got a lot better. I can’t say there’s one part that’s my favourite and there’s a lot of stop and go stuff – nevertheless, I quite like the track. In the past I’ve gone well there but I’ve had some bad luck and haven’t had great results so I’m looking forward to going there and putting that right. It’s good to be leading the world championship and to pull it out a bit at the last race – I’m proud of that – so I’m going to try to stay consistent and not do anything silly. But I want that win. We’ve still got to make some improvements and we know what out issues are – we’re working on edge grip and on engine braking. If we get that sorted out we’ll be even stronger. It’s still early – we’ve got a long way to go in the championship and these guys aren’t going to lay down, everybody’s going to come back fighting. So now it gets busy – it’s going to be a good summer’.
Shuhei Aoyama:
‘I know the Le Mans circuit from videogames, and given its technical features I think that we can make a good race there, better than the race in China. I admit that I’ve been too prudent in Shanghai, especially considering the good start, after which I was leading at the end of the straight, but I didn’t want to repeat the incident of Turkey, and I also needed to finish a race to recover confidence. I’m looking forward to the weekend to get back into action, but now I know that I have to face the racing weekend much calmer and more concentrated, without aiming to get on the podium from the start.’
Sebastián Porto:
‘Our current situation is not easy at all, both for the team and for the rider himself. But the only thing we can do is to work, work and keep on working to pull through; because it’s the only way I think we can make it. We don’t manage to make me ride comfortable and confident on this bike. We made all kinds of changes in the settings of the chassis and suspensions in Shanghai; we tested all there was to test, but there was no way to achieve at least little improvements. I have to be able to move forward in Le Mans and to be back in the front positions, where we actually belong’
Bradley Smith: ‘I’ve been doing many laps on the Playstation to know the track in France better. I don’t know how many laps I’ve already done. In Shanghai, after training and every time I had a spare hour or thirty minutes I tried to set some fast laps in Le Mans. It’s never the same on the Playstation than on the race but at least it gives you a rough idea of which way the track goes. I’m looking forward to the French Grand Prix.’
