Young guns
Dani Pedrosa and
Casey Stoner make their Laguna debuts in very different circumstances. Pedrosa was disappointed to finish fourth in Germany after starting from pole but the 20 year old Spaniard has won two grands prix in his
MotoGP debut season. Australian Stoner arrives with mixed feelings. He’s secured a second place and a pole position on the LCR Honda in his debut year but he’s crashed out three times including a warm-up fall which prevented him riding on Sunday.
The Marlboro Ducati pair of
Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau are slowly recovering from their injuries sustained in the Barcelona crash five weeks ago while Makoto Tamada will be fit after his Sachsenring fall. Spaniard
Toni Elias returned from injury in Germany while Australian
Chris Vermeulen returns to one of his happy hunting grounds in the World Superbike Championship to ride the Rizla Suzuki after a hard-earned seventh place in Germany.
So what about the other Americans hoping to emulate Hayden’s wonderful day last year. Former World Superbike Champion Edwards knows the track well and was second last year but really struggled in Germany with Yamaha handling problem.
John Hopkins has been in superb form on the Rizla Suzuki especially in qualifying but has slowed with tyre problems in the race.
Kenny Roberts from just up the road in Salinas could be the real dark horse on the Oxfordshire built Honda powered KR machine. Despite crashing in Germany he’s been in brilliant form and is relishing the challenge of both riding and developing the bike for his legendary father’s team. He made his grand prix debut at Laguna in the 1993 250cc race, once again racing for his father.
Cumbrian, James Ellison had a difficult weekend beset with chattering problems with his Tech 3 Yamaha. He still finished 13th and is looking forward to his third race at Laguna where he had a tremendous race with former British Superbike Champion Shane Byrne last year.
