REPSOL HONDA RIDERS FOURTH AND EIGHTH IN TOUGH FRENCH GRAND
PRIX
Race Day Attendance: 74.602 weekend attendance: 147.697
French Grand Prix, Le Mans
Race day, Sunday May 18 2008
Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden finished
fourth and eighth in today’s rain-affected French GP
at Le Mans. Pedrosa, who started the race from pole position,
ran in the lead group and only lost his chance of a podium
finish in the final two or three laps. Hayden, who qualified
sixth fastest, lost several places mid-race when he ran off
the track but kept battling hard all the way to the finish.
During the early laps Pedrosa fought an enthralling skirmish
with rivals Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards and Casey Stoner.
Then rain began falling at half-distance, dampening the track
at the entry to the high-speed first corner, which riders
attack at about 180km/h. However, the rain wasn’t strong
enough to bring the front-runners into the pits to change
to their spare bikes equipped with rain tyres. In the closing
stages Pedrosa slipped to fourth behind Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo
and Edwards. Hayden’s off-track excursion at the Garage
Vert corner dropped him to tenth on lap 14, the American gaining
two places as rivals hit problems.
The Repsol Honda Team will test here tomorrow, focusing on
chassis settings and tyre testing with Michelin. Hayden will
then travel back to the US where next weekend he will ride
a demo lap aboard a 2007 RC212V before the start of the huge
Indy 500 car race to promote September’s inaugural Indianapolis
MotoGP event.
Dani Pedrosa
finished 4th, 2nd equal in World Championship
Front tyre: 16" Michelin slick medium Rear tyre: 16.5"
Michelin slick medium
““I am sorry because we could have been on the
podium but in the race I wasn’t able to go as fast as
I had gone during practice. From the beginning of the race
I had some issues with the front tyre, I couldn’t brake
the way I wanted to brake. When we chose our race tyres we
tried hard to choose the best tyres for the race, so we didn’t
expect things to turn out like they did. Then in the second
half of the race I started to lack some rear grip. When Lorenzo
passed me I tried to go with him and not lose contact but
I couldn’t manage it. I gave my maximum and despite
the problems we finished fourth, which isn’t so bad.
We are second equal in the championship and we will continue
to work hard to achieve better results at the next races.
We stay here tomorrow for one day of testing when we will
try to understand what happened today and make another step
forward.”
Nicky Hayden
finished 8th, 7th in World Championship
Front tyre: 16" Michelin slick medium Rear tyre: 16.5"
Michelin slick medium
“That wasn’t too pretty. All weekend we’ve
been missing something, the pace hasn’t been there.
I got a good start and recovered a couple of positions but
couldn’t go with the group I needed to go with. I was
hanging in there, then I ran off the track in turn six, got
in just a little bit hot, didn’t make it and that lost
me three positions. I came back on, had a little dice with
Loris over the last few laps but it wasn’t the result
we wanted. It was definitely tough conditions, it wasn’t
just a few drops of rain it was straight-up raining through
some parts of the track. With the tyres being that hot the
lap times didn’t suffer too bad, but I was kinda hoping
the rain would come down and let us swap bikes and try something
different, but it didn’t happen. This has never been
an easy track for me, I’d say Le Mans is the worst track
for me on the calendar. Tomorrow we’ll work on chassis
stuff. I need to try getting some momentum going, especially
for the tracks I really love that are coming up. I need to
be strong when I get to them, I need to use the people around
me to find what I need.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
““Racing is never easy and today was a difficult
day. Dani didn’t make the podium but he still got a
good points score which is good for the overall championship
situation. We stay here tomorrow to work on the chassis set-up
to put us in the best-possible situation for the next race
where we will once again target victory. Nicky had a difficult
weekend here but I am confident he will be stronger at the
next races.”
Race Results
1 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 44'30.799
2 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 4.997
3 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 6.805
4 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 10.157
5 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 21.762
6 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 22.395
7 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 27.806
8 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 27.995
9 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 29.344
10 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 30.822
11 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 35.154
12 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 36.216
13 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 52.038
14 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 1'29.307
15 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 1 Lap
16 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 2 L
Fastest Lap (new record) V.Rossi (Yamaha) 1'34"215
Circuit best lap 2008: D.Pedrosa (Honda) 1'32"647
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