Friday pm - Quiet HRC Crew Nudges Honda Towards the Title

If you had to place an early bet on who would win the 2008 MotoGP championship you would have to put the money on Dani Pedrosa and the Repsol Honda.

Not just because he leads the points table after four races and topped practice times today, but because of that title-winning word, consistency.

From a ragged winter testing period, Honda's legendary HRC engineering team put a bike under Pedrosa at the first round in Qatar that enabled him to podium immediately.

Apparently, he walked into the Repsol Honda pitbox at the desert track and saw three bikes in pieces and apparent chaos around the garage, but emerged from the weekend a full believer in the HRC myth.

Pedrosa and his mentor Alberto Puig are old-school racers - they reveal little about what they do to the RC212V to make it so hot on lap times.

"The bike is different from last year, and the tyres are better," is all that Pedrosa would say after he beat Casey Stoner by just 0.049 seconds in practice today.

Pushed a little more, he added: "Last year the bike was very unstable and not so good on braking."

And that's all you get from him. Puig said: "He has done a super mental exercise in building his self-confidence, and in thinking about the package that he had."

Hmmm... not a lot to go on, but that's their style.

Although both have won races this year, the performances of Stoner and Valentino Rossi have been less consistent week in, week out. HRC could be on the way to regaining the title they've won only once - with Nicky Hayden in 2006 - in the last four years.


Friday am - Rossi to Stay with Yamaha; Big Churn Elsewhere

There is every indication in Fiat Yamaha circles that Valentino Rossi has found renewed confidence in their vastly quicker YZR-M1 for 2008. So let's assume that he will renew his contract - which currently expires at the end of this year - with the factory pretty soon this season.