This weekend, the Valencia Grand Prix will bring to a close an intense season in which the Repsol riders have starred in the 125cc and MotoGP categories. Marc Márquez comes to the meeting as leader and main contender for the 125cc title and Dani Pedrosa with the objective of remaining runner-up of the premier class, in which Andrea Dovizioso will fight to again make it onto the podium.
It will be the last event of the 2010 season, the conclusion of an intense year which, as has become customary, will finish up in Spain in a very special meeting for the Repsol riders. The main event of the weekend will focus on the lowest category of the three, 125cc, which, with the title still at stake, has kept up the tension to the last. The strong command held by Marc Márquez – winner of ten out of the sixteen races contested – faltered due to bad luck in Jerez and Aragón, giving an opportunity to a consistent Nico Terol who will make his last stand against the Repsol rider.
In the highest cylinder, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso face the fourth ‘home’ meeting at a venue where the Spanish rider has won five times in his sporting career, the last only a year ago. The situation has changed for him over the past twelve months in which he fractured his collarbone at the Japanese Grand Prix while fighting for the title, forcing him to compete with Valentino Rossi for runner-up position.
Dani Pedrosa,
“In a couple of days I will get back on the bike again at Valencia and I really hope to feel better than I did on Sunday in Estoril. The last medical checks I had this week have shown that the nerves are not affected and this is positive, even though I’m feeling the same symptoms of numbness. I went to Clinica Dexeus to have an electromyography scan in my left arm from the neck to the hand. It showed that the nerves are OK, so I will continue having physiotherapy and I hope that gradually the lack of feeling passes. Despite the circumstances, I’m going to Valencia in a good mood because this is a track I love and the atmosphere there is always special. Last year we had a great race, so I want to get a good result regardless of my physical condition. We have a new sponsor this weekend from Honda in Indonesia. When I visited Indonesia this year I was really amazed by how many people follow MotoGP there. They are very passionate and knowledgeable about the championship, so it’s good that this new sponsor on the Repsol Honda machine can create a link with this country”.
Andrea Dovizioso,
“I’m very happy that we were back on the podium in Estoril. It means we are competitive and that we can go to Valencia with the target of fighting for fourth position in the World Championship. Valencia is quite a slow and twisty track which makes it a technical and challenging circuit which isn’t easy to ride. It’s not one of my favourite circuits on the calendar but that’s really not important – because we are determined to have a very good race on Sunday and finish off the year as strongly as possible. The Valencia weekend is a special event, not only because it is the final round of the season but also because on Tuesday and Wednesday after the Grand Prix there are two important days of testing in preparation for the 2011 season. I’m really looking forward to getting the maximum out of these two days of testing before we head into the long winter break”.
Marc Márquez,
“We are going to Valencia with maximum focus and motivation because, as I’ve already said, this is the most important race of my life so far. We have to be very focussed because, as we saw in Portugal, anything can happen. Let’s hope that the weather is good to us so that we can have a good weekend of racing. It’s a circuit on which we had the chance to test during preseason and we were quite fast so let’s hope that we are comfortable and confident on the bike so that we have a good weekend. We’ll have to think about the title because that’s much more important than one race”.
