The Japanese Grand Prix will be the first of the three rounds in Asia and Oceania that the World Championship riders will face
The Motorcycling World Championship is approaching its end, starting the most exciting part of the series, where the titles will be decided and the Repsol riders will play a key role. Casey Stoner, solid leader of the MotoGP category, and Marc Márquez, a firmer contender for the Moto2 title after an amazing recovery, will fight for the World Championship title from next Friday in Motegi, Japan. Beside them, Dani Pedrosa will try to fight again for victory, while Andrea Dovizioso will want to take revenge for his only retirement of the season.
The round will take place at the Motegi track, owned by Honda and where Stoner already won last year. Together with his recent victory in Aragon, the Repsol Honda Team rider has the best background to face the Japanese round, where he will arrive after eight victories this season and a consistency that allowed him to get on the podium in the last 12 races. The Australian rider has a 44-point advantage in the overall standings, just four races before the end of a championship that he has been steadily holding more firmly in his hands.
A World Championship where Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa have only a 15-point difference between them in third and fourth position respectively. A year ago, the Japanese Grand Prix was sad for Pedrosa, as a crash in the first practice forced him to retire from the title battle after fracturing his collarbone. Twelve months later, completely recovered and with the most competitive bike of the last seasons, the Repsol rider is, toghether with his Australian team mate, one of the main contenders to victory, after finishing three consecutive times in second position in the last three races. For Dovizioso, always consistent, it will be the chance to forget about his crash in Aragon and get back to the podium, that has avoided him in the last three races.
In the intermediate category, Marc Márquez starts the last part of the season after dealing yet another blow to the class leader, Stefan Bradl, during the round held two weeks ago in Spain With a difference of 6 points between them and with another 100 points still up for grabs, the rest of the season will be a completely new championship, where the two riders will fight to be Toni Elias’ heir as the king of Moto2.
Dani Pedrosa,
“Motegi is one of my favourite circuits not only for the layout but also for the atmosphere; I always ride well there and feel a lot of support from the Japanese fans and I think this year will be even more special for them. Obviously, last year I had a hard time there due to my injury, but I want to focus on my riding and enjoy the GP. I go there with the same approach as the last races: trying to do our best in all the sessions. We’ve been at a good level, with three second places in a row and I am looking forward to this race. I have won at this track in 125 and 250, but not yet in MotoGP, so that’s a big motivation for me. I enjoy racing in Motegi and together with my team will do our best to perform well”.
Andrea Dovizioso,
“We go to Japan focused on returning to the podium, this has to be our target. We will arrive at the Japanese GP this year in the same position we were last year —straight from a crash and zero points—, but I’m determined to transform this disappointment with extra motivation. Last season we had a great race and we almost won, so I’m confident to repeat a great performance at Motegi, a circuit that I like and where I have been on the podium in all the three classes. Moreover, this is Honda’s home GP and it’s very important to score a good result here. Regarding the characteristics of the track, the Twin Ring Motegi has a lot of acceleration zones so it suits the RC212V well, allowing us to use all the strong points of our machine. Concerning the Championship, we are third in the World Standings and we aim to strengthen our position, recovering some points on Lorenzo and maintaining the gap to Dani”.
Casey Stoner,
“Motegi is quite a different circuit, it’s similar in a way to Le Mans and is very stop-start, a little like a go kart track, but in general it’s nice and more fun than some of the other circuits we visit. It has a lot of hard breaking, a lot of hard accelerating, it’s pretty tough on the body and physically demanding. If you miss your breaking points it’s easy to run wide so it will be important to get the set up on the bike just right. As in Aragon, we will be going out there trying to win and not only looking for valuable Championship points.We had a fantastic race here last year, probably one of my best in my opinion and it will be fun to go there on the Honda and see how the bike works around the circuit”.
Marc Márquez,
“I like competing in Japan, where the atmosphere is always very special and this year it will certainly be even more so. With the 125cc bike it went very well for me at the Motegi track, especially last year, where I was able to win. As always, we will have to pay attention to the weather, because there is a chance of rain some of the days. We will see how it goes with the Moto2, but I am sure that it will be a fun track, as Aragon, because there are many braking points and a place where you skid a lot. In the last race I improved a lot in this area thanks to the new parts. We are just 6 points away from the lead, but that will not change our mentality or the way we do our job, because it has worked very well for us up to now”.
