No rest for the Championship, heading to Catalunya this weekend
Rossi and Pedrosa arrive leading the standings of their respective classes; Elias and Nieto will try to shorten distances with Poggiali in Barcelona
Valentino Rossi has everything in his favour at this moment. The Repsol rider arrives leading the overall standings of the MotoGP class with an advantage of 32 points over the second classified rider and gets back to a circuit where he already was victorious last season. After his victory in Mugello, Rossi will be trying to add more points to his score and to increase his advantage. And whilst Rossi is counting, his team-mate Nicky Hayden gets back to a circuit where he already lapped in March during the 2003 IRTA tests.
In the 250cc, the Repsol riders will be on another home race. Toni Elias and Fonsi Nieto, with different luck in Italy, will arrive in Barcelona ready to shorten the twenty and twenty-seven points difference with regard to the leader, Manuel Poggiali, in the overall standings. Sebastián Porto, on a less complicated circuit for his Honda RSW 250 YPF than Mugello, is hoping again to fight for the podium finish he hasn’t been able to clinch this season so far. And Joan Olivé, sixth last year in the 125cc class, together with his team-mate Héctor Faubel, will be fighting again for a place among the top fifteen.In the minor category, Dani Pedrosa returns to the circuit where he managed to finish second last year, right after finishing second in the Italian Grand Prix last weekend. Leading the overall standings together with the Italian Lucio Cecchinello, Pedrosa will be having an advantage this weekend thanks to the full support of the fans that are expected to fill up the circuit this weekend. Pablo Nieto, who already tasted the podium last weekend in Italy, will have the opportunity in Barcelona to make up for the retirement due to mechanical failure in Jerez while he was leading the 125cc race. His team-mate Héctor Barberá, ninth in Mugello, seams to have gotten back the rhythm, so we will probably see him in Barcelona fighting to improve positions with regard to his result in Italy.
