EVENT PREVIEW, PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX, ESTORIL
REPSOL HONDA RIDERS ON FORM FOR PORTUGAL
April 11/12/13 2008, round 3 of 18
Repsol Honda RC212V riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden
head into the Portuguese Grand Prix aiming to keep improving
following a superb Spanish GP. Former 125 and 250 World Champion
Pedrosa won Jerez in dominant style to lead the MotoGP series
for the first time, while 2006 MotoGP champ Hayden took an
excellent fourth-place finish after running with the leaders.
Both men spent two further days at Jerez testing components,
tyres and setup options that should put them in even better
shape at Estoril. Pedrosa won the Jerez race using Michelin’s
wider profile front tyre for the first time and he used the
tests to further improve his feeling for the tyre, which offers
superior corner-entry performance. Meanwhile Hayden set the
fastest lap of the tests while evaluating Michelin rear tyres
and some new clutch parts for smoother corner entries.
Estoril is a complex and tricky circuit with some dramatic
contrasts – the chicane is MotoGP’s slowest corner
and the kink onto the back straight is one of the fastest.
Riders need a well-balanced machine that is manageable in
slower turns and stable in the fast sweepers, with good top
speed for the 320km/h-199mph main straight and excellent braking
stability.
Hayden is the current Estoril lap record holder and also
took pole position at last year’s event, in which Pedrosa
finished a very close second, just 0.176 seconds off the win.
Honda has won five of the eight premier-class GPs staged at
the track since 2002.
Dani Pedrosa
“The tests we did at Jerez should help us, it was good
to get more familiar with the bike and do some more work with
Michelin’s wider front tyre. At Estoril you need a bike
that performs well on the brakes and maintains optimum rear
grip throughout the race. It’s a tough track from a
riding point of view, because you need to be very strong to
handle the braking and the bumps and you also need excellent
physical endurance. You need to be quite aggressive but at
the same time you need to stay relaxed so you don’t
get drained during the race. The most important part of the
track is the last corner – it’s a very long turn
which influences your speed all the way down the straight
– so it’s vital for good lap times. The tarmac
isn’t in great shape – it’s bumpy and a
bit slippery. I like the atmosphere though, it’s 100
per cent Spanish!”
Nicky Hayden
“Hopefully we’ve got things rolling now. Jerez
wasn’t bad, good enough to make me look forward to Estoril
where we’ll be working to keep going forward. It’s
is an old-school track, it’s a strange little place,
not very wide and kinda odd. It can be a lot of fun or it
can be miserable. It’s got that little bus-stop chicane
which is probably the slowest corner in MotoGP, but I really
like the right-hand kink onto the back straightaway, that’s
pretty fast and cool. And I love the last corner coming onto
the front straightaway – when the bike works good and
steers through there it can be pretty fun. Obviously you want
something with some horsepower because the front straightaway
goes on for days. And you need something to get through the
tight, twisty bits. One other thing, there’s definitely
a lot more right-handers, so you need softer compounds on
the left side of the tyres.”
Estoril Circuit – The details
Opened: 1972
Modified: 1999
Circuit Length: 4.182km
Longest straight: 986m
Track width: 14m
Pole Position: Left
Right corners: 9
Left corners: 4
Circuit statistics - Motogp
2007 Motogp Race
1 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2 Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
3 Casey Stoner (Ducati)
2007 Pole Position Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1m 36.031s
Fastest Lap (New record): Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1m 37.493s
Circuit record lap Kenny Roberts Jr (KR211V) 1m 37.914s –
2006
Circuit Best Lap Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1m 36.200s - 2006
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