|
Valentino Rossi yellow-gray T-Shirt 
Valentino Rossi long sleeved T-Shirt, manufactured from cotton, and uses a contrast yellow and grey panel design, with Rossi name and number 46 stitched on the chest using separate pieces of fabric.
Buy - More details
HighRevs Shop
|
2007-05-03 Dani Pedrosa leads Honda attack in Shanghai
 Be first to comment this story
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) who memorably won his first premier class race here last year will be aiming to repeat that victory here on Sunday and propel himself up the points table in pursuit of his rivals.The young Spaniard was brought down in Turkey two weeks ago, but is fitenough to compete here.
Last year he qualified on pole and then won setting the fastest lap ofthe race as he did so. His team-mate Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V)finished second giving Repsol Honda a perfect race weekend.
There has been no winter testing here and so riders will approach thistrack with only last season’s data to work from with new machines and new tyre regulations to cope with. The wildly variable weather willalso be a factor. This race, the fourth of an 18 event series, will be pivot al in terms of the points tallies riders take back to Europe when the World Championship frequency intensifies.
One man in good form at the moment is Toni Elias, who has accumulated 80 points over the last six races (two at the end of 2006). This is the shape of a rider in Championship form – Elias lies 4th overall on 35 points and a win here would establish him among the title contenders.
His team-mate, Marco Melandri is a rider who isjust shy of his best form at the moment and he’ll be looking use China as a springboard from which to launch a title challenge. The Italian currently has 30 points and needs a big score. And here at this impressive but not particularly well-liked track could be the place to start.
The Shanghai International Circuit is situated 40km outside Shanghaiand was designed by Hermann Tilke, also responsible for Istanbul Parkin Turkey. Shanghai may not be quite as challenging as Istanbul Park,but it makes its own particular set of demands on riders.
At 5.281km in length it is among the longer tracks and at 14.4m wide the tarmac leaves plenty of room for imagination when taking racing lines on entry and exit to the 14 turns, seven of which are lefts and seven right-hand corners.
The main straight is the longest in MotoGP at 1175m and this puts a premium on top speed. But acceleration out of the many tight turns is equally vital, as well as stability under the exceptionally heavy braking on the entries. Couple this with two turns that double back on themselves at almost 360 degrees and here is a track that requires the utmost work in set-up.
Dani Pedrosa:
I’m looking forward to racing inChina because I want to put Turkey behind me as soon as possible. I’vestill got a bit of a stiff neck and some discomfort in my chest, butI’ll be OK to begin first practice on Friday. I have very good memoriesfrom my first MotoGP race win there last year. The weather can be verywet here so we’ll just have to hope that it stays dry this year. Itwill be interesting to see how the 800s feel and perform on thiscircuit – I think the straights could feel very long!
Nicky Hayden:
I had a pretty decent result in Chinalast year and we certainly need to put in a strong performance thistime. My favourite part of the track is probably the long right-handerheading onto the back straight. And even at 200mph that back straightgoes for days, before you hit the hardest braking corner on thecircuit. Obviously though, long straights are not our strongest pointright now so I hope we can make some progress there.
Marco Melandri:
I’m going to China feeling confidentafter the race in Istanbul – not so much for the result but for the waywe fought back after a difficult weekend. In the race we recovered thefeeling I lost during practice and I was able to ride my Honda in theway I like. Now the objective is to find the right way forward with theset-up from the first session and get a qualifying position that willallow me to fight for a top position in the race.
Toni Elias:
I have to thank my team for the workthey’ve done on the set-up and Bridgestone, who have come up with atyre which is perfect for my riding style. This has raised myconfidence in my potential and allowed me to progress. The job stillisn't finished though and we still have margin for improvement. I'mpleased to see that my riding style, which many people said would betoo aggressive for the new 800cc bike, can be effective and allow me tochallenge for victories.
Carlos Checa:
I came from Japan to Shanghai toprepare for this race following the Honda Suzuka 8-hour test, to avoidjet lag from going back to Europe. I’ve done a lot of riding andtravelling in the past two weeks. For me the Shanghai track is nothingspecial, it is more for Formula 1, but I will work at 100% with theteam to prepare for the race. On the long straight we will have somehandicap with acceleration and top speed, and hopefully Honda canassist us in that area. The positive from the Istanbul test was a stepforward with the Michelin qualifying tyres, eliminating chatter fromthe front.
Shinya Nakano:
The Shanghai track has some fastsections where top-speed is important – especially the main straight –so I’m hoping we won’t be too far behind the other teams and machineson top speed. Whatever happens the Team and I will be working hard tofind a good setting for the new 800cc Honda RC212V from the firstsession and try to improve things further as the weekend goes on. Myaim as ever is the reach the chequered flag and get some good points.
Kenny Roberts:
We had a very good test the day afterTurkey and got the bike working a lot better with the new stiffer swingarm. In race practice we had to change a lot of settings to suit thenew parts but we lost most of the track time on day one with the rainand stuff and struggled to get the best out of the bike in a shorttime. But I’m happy with going into Shanghai the tyre situation will beinteresting this weekend. We had a tyre issue at Turkey but that was aone off, I’m sure Michelin will come up with the tyres we need orSunday.
|
Back to MotoGP news home
|
|
|
