The Repsol Honda Team are approaching the Grand Prix of Catalunya with mixed emotions following the Italian GP. Pedrosa's superb ride to second place last weekend sets up the Spaniard nicely for a strong showing at his home race. Defending World Champion, Hayden on the other hand will be hoping for a reversal of luck for the rest of his season.
Pedrosa was born only 15km from the challenging Montmelo circuit and will be determined to put on a competitive display for the Barcelona crowd, which last year totaled an amazing 194,264 spectators for the weekend. As if any more motivation were necessary, the 21-year-old will be spurred on by the events of last year's race where the
MotoGP debutant was knocked down in the dramatic first corner crash that prompted a restart.
The Spaniard's subsequent retirement from the race was a blemish on his otherwise excellent record at the 4.727km track. In the 125cc class Pedrosa was 2nd in 2002 and won the race in 2003. He then took 2nd in 2004 and the win in 2005 at Catalunya on his way to back-to-back 250cc titles.
“I'm really looking forward to my home race at Barcelona. We've had quite good results in the last two races at Le Mans and Mugello so I hope I can keep this form going,” said Pedrosa.
Discussing last year's big smash he said, “Last year's race here was a disaster because I was involved in the big first corner crash. I was not injured which was lucky but then I crashed again in the restarted race, so I hope things go a lot smoother this year. We had a good improvement from the Michelin tyres at the last race in Mugello compared to China and Turkey so there are positive signs for our competitiveness for the next few races.”
Pedrosa is looking forward to lots of local support as he continued, “The Barcelona track is one I like from a layout point of view and there are some technical and challenging corners here. There's also a long straight like at Mugello so it will be interesting to see how the speeds compare again. I always get a lot of support at this race, and because we didn't have the IRTA test before the season this will be the first time this year that the local fans have seen
MotoGP. I really want to give them the result they're hoping for and we'll certainly be trying to battle right at the front again.”
Hayden would be delighted to repeat last year's race-long scrap for the lead he was involved in with
Valentino Rossi in Catalunya. The popular American is due a change in fortune in Spain having endured a torrid start to the 2007 season in which a string of bad luck has compounded machine set-up difficulties. The 25-year-old will be hoping to remedy some of those problems in Barcelona – at a circuit he likes and where he holds the lap record from last year's race.
“Barcelona is a track I like and I've had some decent results here, including second last year, so I'll be looking to find some answers and get a strong finish this weekend. It's a really good circuit, really safe to ride and there's always a good atmosphere because they definitely love their bike racing in Spain,” he said.
He is a little concerned that they haven't tested at this circuit in the pre season, “This will be the first season we've come here having not tested in the winter. Normally we do one pre-season test which gives us a pretty good base setting but this time there was no test so we'll be riding the new 800cc bike for the first time here. That means they'll be plenty of work to do in practice and we'll be trying to find a better feeling on the machine that allows me to ride the way I want to because I need to get some stronger results going. We've had a pretty rough ride so far this season but the team's working really hard and we're giving it everything to get out of this hole we're in.”
