MotoGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT PREVIEW
CATALAN GRAND PRIX, CATALUNYA
June 6/7/8 2008, round 7 of 18
Repsol Honda RC212V riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden
this week join the MotoGP rush from Mugello to Catalunya,
a circuit that has been kind to both riders. The Catalan Grand
Prix is always a special event for Pedrosa in particular because
he was brought up in Sabadell, less than 20 kilometres from
the track. The Spaniard has already enjoyed Catalan GP victories
in the 125 and 250 classes and last year scored a MotoGP podium
at the track. Hayden scored a Catalunya podium in 2006, his
MotoGP title-winning year.
Before practice commences the team will decide whether Pedrosa
and Hayden will use Honda’s pneumatic-valve-spring engine
or delay evaluation until the two-day post-race tests.
Pedrosa, who is currently second in the World Championship,
and Hayden, who has had a tougher start to his 2008 campaign,
are set to make the decision on Wednesday or Thursday, once
they have fully analysed all the data gathered by HRC test
rider Tadayuki Okada during last Sunday’s Italian GP.
Okada rode a great race with the engine, scoring two World
Championships, even though he’s not contested a GP for
almost eight years.
The pneumatic-valve-spring RCV engine has a 1000rpm higher
rev ceiling than the conventional valve-spring engine and
thus a better top-speed potential which make it an attractive
proposition to both Repsol Honda riders. But MotoGP is a complex
sport, with a multitude of factors beyond pure horsepower
governing lap times. And with limited track time during race
weekends, it’s possible that Pedrosa and Hayden may
prefer to wait until the post-race tests in order to fully
evaluate and set up the engine for subsequent races.
Catalunya was built in the early 1990s to bring the motorcycling
World Championship to Spain’s biking heartland. The
magnificent Barcelona circuit hosted its first Grand Prix
in May 1992 and has been a popular fixture on the calendar
ever since. The track layout is highly technical with an enthralling
mix of fast, long corners and slow, tight turns, camber changes
and bumps, plus a long start-finish where horsepower and slipstreaming
are crucial.
Dani Pedrosa
“This is a great weekend because I am riding in front
of my home crowd, near where I grew up, and I really feel
and appreciate the fans’ support. The atmosphere is
always very special at Montmeló, with a big and enthusiastic
crowd throughout the weekend. I will do everything I can to
offer them a good race. I really like some parts of the track,
especially from the left-hander after Repsol, down the hill
from there, into that little left-right chicane and then uphill
towards the next right. The surface is quite bumpy, probably
due Formula 1 cars, racing trucks and so on. The start-finish
straight is very long, so you need a fast bike for this track.
It is also important to keep the tyres in good condition,
because the surface is very abrasive, so you need a nice,
fluid riding style. As for the new engine, we will see. It’s
not easy to set up a new engine during a race weekend, so
we need to wait a bit before making the final decision.”
Nicky Hayden
“I quite like the track, if I had to play a videogame
it might not be the first I’d choose but it would be
somewhere near the top. There are a lot of corners where you’re
on the side of the tyres for a long time so edge grip is really
important, especially on the right side. It’s also important
to have a bike that steers good and finishes the corner. The
electronics can come in quite handy, it’s a place where
you can really use them to help the rear tyre. The last two
corners are probably my favourites, they’re really important,
you start dropping down that hill and you need to carry some
momentum onto the main straightaway. And qualifying is really
important because the first chicane is tight so we’ll
be looking to get in a good qualifying lap to give us a good
grid position. Anytime we race in Spain you can expect it
to be a bit of a party, which makes it a good weekend. The
pneumatic engine is interesting, because for me the 2008 chassis
works better with that engine, so hopefully it can be more
than just a good engine for us. But we’ve got to check
all the data before we make the decision.”
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