Last week it was Dani Pedrosa who gave us his particular view on the venues of the 2007 season, and this week it is his team-mate at the Repsol Honda Team and reigning MotoGP World Champion who will offer us his opinion on the 18 tracks.
Losail (Qatar): I quite like this track. It’s got a couple of banked corners that are fun and there are some long, long right handers which are pretty cool. I’d say my favourite part is the combination of the first three corners: two banked corners followed by a fast right-hander. I’ve never seen a track with more run-off for safety. It’s kinda funky too because they don’t have grass, it’s all rocks or Astroturf. And because it’s in the desert the wind blows the sand in and gets the track dirty, so normally on Friday it’s slippery but by Sunday the grip gets better. It’s weird racing there though because there are hardly any spectators.
Jerez (España): “Jerez is a circuit I know quite well because we’ve done a lot of winter testing there. It’s a circuit in which it is hard to find the limit but it is also one of the best layouts of the championship. The ambience there during the Grand Priz is incredible; Spanish fans live the race as a big party and it’s always impressive to see the grandstands packed with people enjoying the races.”
Istanbul (Turkey): “Turkey doesn’t remind me of any other track. It’s got a lot of elevation changes which means you’ve got to get a good compromise for the bike’s suspension set-up – something that’s going to work in the flat corners but also be ok for the uphill and downhill corners too. Probably the favourite part for me is turn 11. It’s the fastest corner on the calendar – 5th gear with the throttle almost wide open. If you like fast corners it doesn’t get a whole lot better than that. The last little bit of the circuit I don’t like too much because it’s a bit too tight for MotoGP – first gear and really go-kartish.
Shanghai (China): “My favourite thing about China is that I really like the surface. I’m sure the layout is great for Formula One car racing but for motorcycles it’s too much of a stop-and-go track. It’s got some sections that are really cool. The long right-hander heading onto the back straightaway is probably my favourite part. And the back straightaway goes for days, even at 200mph. It just goes and goes and goes, before you hit the hardest braking corner on the circuit. It’s also a wide track so there are definitely some different lines you can take. The facility is amazing – it’s ridiculous how much those cats have spent on the place.”
Le Mans (France): “It’s a very hard track, probably one of the hardest of the championship. The tarmac surface is in bad condition, it’s very slippery and it gets worse when it rains. The layout isn’t bad, but the surface is probably the worst of the championship.”
Mugello (Italy): “It was a very difficult track for me to learn, but it’s surely one of the most incredible circuits I’ve ever seen. It’s built on an impressive site, on top of a hill, and it needs a very good set-up. I’m looking forward to racing in Mugello because I like it a lot I always hope to get there and get a good result.”
Catalunya (Spain): “It’s a track that combines many things. It has two clearly different sections: a first bumpy section, which was repaved not long ago, and another section in the middle where riding is completely different. The set-up of the bike is very important, you need to find a compromise to make it work on both sections. Together with Mugello it’s one of the circuits where you reach a higher top speed.”
Donington (Great Britain): “It’s a very narrow circuit and it is very bumpy; it makes me remember the American tracks. It’s a track where the riding technique is very important because it has some blind corners. You have to ride with confidence and push hard always, without lowering your guard.”
Assen (Holland): “Probably my favourite circuit of the championship. It’s fun to ride there. It’s completely different to any other circuit of the championship. It has a very fast S-shaped section and it’s one of the longest circuits of the Championship. Given its special features, you need some time to adapt to the situation to make good use of it. Too bad the changes they made there last year because they took away some of the beauty of that singular layout.”
Sachsenring (Germany): “It’s a left-hand track and with my dirt track experience riding on the left-hand side is quite easy. It’s also a track with two different sections. It’s very narrow at the beginning but then it becomes wider. Overtaking is quite difficult, especially at the beginning; therefore you need a good place on the grid and to make a good start to avoid staying behind.”
Laguna Seca (USA): “I think Laguna’s the best track on the calendar for me – it’s a real rider’s track. There are parts of the track where you’ve got to be really smooth but there are spots where you’ve got to be very aggressive too. Turn One and the Corkscrew are the ones that everybody talks about – those take a lot of guts. I like it because it’s different. There isn’t another track in the world that’s got a Corkscrew like that – the drop away is so big. It’s a tough track, some people find it a little bit bumpy and it’s not the widest so it’s pretty tight on a MotoGP bike. It’s no secret they need to work on the safety a bit, but they’re working really hard to make it safer since we went there.”.
Brno (Czech Republic): “One of the best circuits of the world championship. A quite wide track allowing very fluid riding, ideal for racing. Standing out is very important there because it’s difficult to break away. It’s an ideal place to make a good result and overtake, because there are several breaking points to do so.”
Misano (San Marino): “I’ve never raced there before, as most of the World Championship riders. They have also changed the race sense and they are still making changes, so we’re all going to get there under the same conditions. Fortunately the guys of the Superbike World Championship are going to race there before so we’ll have the chance to see their two races before to learn something about the track.”
Estoril (Portugal): “It’s a quite hard track. It has a lot of unevennesses and the layout is a bit different than the rest, with ups and downs and very closed corners. I crashed a couple of times there last year. It’s not an easy circuit.”
Motegi (Japan): “It has a lot of hard braking points and the surface is extraordinary. I like the tunnels and bridges of the circuit a lot, they make it more fun. The final section is good as well, there are a series of complicated slopes where you have to be ready to brake hard.”
Phillip Island (Australia): “It’s my favourite circuit. The atmosphere and the location of the circuit on top of a hill, surrounded by the ocean, are fantastic. Its main problem are the wind and the seagulls. Tow years ago I ran into one of them and it’s really dangerous.”
Sepang (Malaysia): “I’ve made many laps on this circuit because we’ve spent several days testing here. It isn’t an easy circuit because it’s really long and wide. It was hard to get used to it at the beginning but, in general, I think that it’s a good circuit because it has a bit of everything. Closed corners, fast sections… The grip is very important because the track temperature increases a lot in the afternoon.”
Ricardo Tormo (Valencia): “I also like it a lot because somehow it makes me remember the American tracks, narrow and twisty. I think that it’s one of those tracks that needs a more aggressive riding style. I like the layout because it favours the show in several points, although overtaking is not easy.”
