MotoGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT PREVIEW
CHINESE GRAND PRIX, SHANGHAI
May 2/3/4 2008, round 4 of 18
REPSOL HONDA DUO SET FOR CHINESE CHALLENGE
Repsol Honda RC212V riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden travel
to China aiming to build on the good work undertaken at the
first three races of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship. Pedrosa,
who holds equal first place in the points chase, will be aiming
to repeat his 2006 Shanghai victory, his first success in
the MotoGP class, to boost his 2008 title challenge. Hayden
has had a tougher start to the season but shows every sign
of challenging up front. At Jerez he rode to a close fourth-place
result and at Estoril he was chasing a podium finish when
he slid off.
Shanghai was built to host its first Formula One car Grand
Prix in 2005 and staged its first MotoGP event the same year.
It is an unusual circuit, the layout inspired by the Chinese
character ‘shang’, meaning ‘above’,
which is the origin of the historic port’s name, Shanghai
meaning ‘above the ocean’. The track is most notable
for featuring MotoGP’s longest and fastest straight
(the back straight which measures 1.202km-0.747 miles) and
its longest corner (the turn one/two right-hander which takes
riders through 300 degrees). Pedrosa and Hayden enjoyed their
best weekend at the track with a superb one-two finish at
the 2006 Chinese GP.
Dani Pedrosa
“We have had quite a good start to the season –
on the podium at each of the first three races and one victory
– and we are working hard to stay very competitive.
The tests we did at Estoril were useful, we worked on a few
things that should help us in China, like improving front-end
feeling and stability on the brakes. What I like the most
about Shanghai is the width of the track. The surface is of
good quality but a bit rough, probably due to the Formula
One cars. The circuit layout isn’t that great, it features
some very strange corners and the balance between the straights,
the tight corners and the faster corners isn’t very
good. One of the most important parts of the track is the
back straight, which is very long, so you need good engine
performance here. Braking is also very important at Shanghai.
It’s an unusual track and you need to ride relaxed and
easy. The atmosphere is almost non-existent because the crowd
isn’t very big but the grandstands are huge.”
Nicky Hayden
“It seems like we’re making progress, Honda’s
working hard, the Michelin tyres are working good and I really
enjoyed the bike at Estoril. We were up there all weekend,
so we’ve just got to put the crash behind us and move
on. Shanghai is a strange track, my favourite thing is the
surface, seems like it’s always good and consistent.
The track has got two big straightaways, the back straightaway
is the highest top speed of the year and right after you’ve
got one of the slowest corners in MotoGP, so it’s really
important to be stable on the brakes, so we worked on that
during our tests at Estoril. You also need something good
on horsepower, something you can do some drafting with. Turn
one/two is quite unique and technical, with a lot of different
lines, either sweep wide or stay low. And the corner coming
onto the back straightaway is super important because it sets
you up for that sixth-gear run. The facilities are amazing,
it’s probably the most over-the-top facility I’ve
seen in my life, saying that, Indy is pretty spectacular too.”
SHANGHAI - TRACK DATA
Constructed: 2004
Length:5281 m
Width: 14 m
Pole position: Left
Right corners: 7
Left corners:7
Straight: 1202 m
MotoGP Race: 22 laps
RECORDS:
Circuit record: Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) 1’59”318
(2006)
Pole position: Rossi (Yamaha) 1’58”424 (2007)
2007 Results: 1st Stoner (Ducati) 2nd Rossi (Yamaha) 3rd Hopkins
(Suzuki)
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