Honda re-discovers speed for Sachsenring

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2007-07-11 Honda re-discovers speed for Sachsenring
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As round ten of this 18-race MotoGP series unfolds this weekend both Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) and reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) are set to show the fighting form they rediscovered at Assen two weeks ago.

Nicky scored his first podium of the season and Dani came in a close fourth. The duo will be looking for better here and with good reason. This circuit has been a happy hunting ground for them both before. Dani has won here on a 250cc machine and Nicky was a very close third last year.

Hayden’s third place in 2006 was part of a four-rider scrap for the win that went down in history as the closest finish in MotoGP so far with just 0.307 seconds covering the top four as they sped across the line.

And there’s every chance the action will be just as frantic this weekend too. Dani will be itching to get on terms with the World Championship leaders Casey Stoner (Ducati) on 185 points and second-placed Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) who currently has 164 points. Dani lies third with 119 and the Spanish ace badly needs a win to claw his way back into the title reckoning.

Dani has scored four podium finishes and has notched up three fourth places so far this season, but he knows this is not yet the form of a World Championship contender. After the encouragement of Assen, Dani knows that he must build on that progress with at least a podium finish here.

Nicky enjoys riding here and is relishing the prospect of firing his RC212V out of the ten left-hand turns here in the dirt-track style he learned as a kid. Few riders are quite as spectacular as The Kentucky Kid here at the Sachsenring.

All riders will need their considerable talents to tame this track. Set in the rolling heartlands of German motorcycle sport in the Hohenstein-Ernstthal region, this 3.671km former public roads circuit is close to the MZ motorcycle factory and huge crowds of up to 250,000 attended the event in its heyday.

The tight twisting nature of the track demands acceleration rather than outright speed, six left-hand turns in succession put great stress on tyre edge-grip and a steep downhill plunge followed by an uphill section to the start/finish straight requires utter precision from riders and dependable stability from machines.

A crowd of 220,000 attended the event over the three days last year and that figure is sure to be matched or exceeded even if the weather is set fair for the weekend. Either way the racing will be red hot and the man who scored a second place here last year, Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V), will hope to be in the thick of it again.

The Italian star has only notched one podium so far this year and he is more than eager to put that right this weekend. His team-mate Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V) will not ride until the end of August or early September after breaking his leg in Holland two weeks ago. He is replaced by Italian rider Michel Fabrizio.

Dani Pedrosa:
I’m looking forward to another good race at the Sachsenring. The track is quite tight and it’s a short lap which usually leads to some close racing. Last year the result wasn’t bad and I was very close to the podium, though having set pole position and the fastest lap of the race it was a little frustrating to finish fourth of course. We’ll see if we can improve on that this weekend. It’ll be interesting to see how the new 800cc machine differs to last year’s 990s. We could be quicker through the tight parts of the track, but then again the straight begins by coming out of an uphill corner which will test the engine, so we’ll have to wait and see whether the 800s are quicker.

Nicky Hayden:
I am very excited going to Germany because I’ve found a much better set-up and feeling with the machine recently and it’s a lot more fun to be riding up front again. We’ve still got some work to do if we want to move up to where the real fun is though. I hope we can continue improving the set-up over the weekend and get the bike turning better. Also we need to dial in the clutch a little more to smooth out the corner entry. In the past the Sachsenring has been a good track to me. It’s quite tight, short and has been a little bumpy which meant you had to be pretty scrappy to get around there quickly. But I like it – it’s got a few fast left-handers and the downhill Waterfall corner is pretty sick.

Marco Melandri:
The next two circuits are really interesting and the Germany-USA double header will be really demanding. Sachsenring is a unique circuit but I like it because it’s so flowing. At such a slow and twisty track the setting of the bike has to be perfect. Hopefully we can have a good session on Friday and find a good compromise for the set-up. From a rider’s perspective it is important to control the throttle and not be too aggressive.

Michel Fabrizio, standing in for the injured Tony Elias, raced once for the team last season.
I’m very happy to have another opportunity to ride the Honda. I raced at the Sachsenring in 2004 and this experience may help me in the knowledge of the track. I’m enthusiastic and I thank Fausto Gresini for this great chance.

Shinya Nakan:
It’s not a particularly fast track, but there are some fun corners and having had a fairly good result here last year as well as a rostrum in 2001, I’m hoping that this will help us for the coming weekend. After a number of races where the weather hasn’t been very good and has changed from wet to dry, let’s also hope that we will get some good, consistent weather for the whole race weekend!

Carlos Checa:
This is another chance to get on terms with the leaders at a track where outright speed is not too much of an issue. If we can get the set-up right early on I have a good opportunity of doing well here.

Kurtis Roberts:
We’re still working as hard as we can to get the chassis where we want it and this is just another race in a long line of events we can use to get closer to where we want to be. With Laguna Seca coming up the weekend after this we’re hoping for some positive progress here.

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