Hear the words 'Estoril' and 'Repsol Honda' and the first thing that springs to mind is probably
Dani Pedrosa's infamous 2006 collision with team-mate
Nicky Hayden, which took the American out of the world championship lead with one round to go.
Nicky may have gone on to win the world title that year, with Pedrosa offering his support at the Valencia season finale, but the fallout from that collision continues to linger in the form of a somewhat 'frosty' relationship between the two factory riders - so can a Repsol Honda rider 'reclaim' Estoril for positive reasons with victory in next weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix?
Expectations are certainly sky high after Pedrosa's dominant home victory at
Jerez, which put the Spaniard and his spring-valve powered RC212V on top of the world championship standings for the first time ever as a
MotoGP rider.
"The tests we did at Jerez should help us, it was good to get more familiar with the bike and do some more work with Michelin's wider front tyre," said Dani of the forthcoming event. "At Estoril you need a bike that performs well on the brakes and maintains optimum rear grip throughout the race. It's a tough track from a riding point of view, because you need to be very strong to handle the braking and the bumps and you also need excellent physical endurance.
"You need to be quite aggressive but at the same time you need to stay relaxed so you don't get drained during the race. The most important part of the track is the last corner - it's a very long turn which influences your speed all the way down the straight - so it's vital for good lap times. The tarmac isn't in great shape - it's bumpy and a bit slippery. I like the atmosphere though, it's 100 per cent Spanish!" he added.
After a frustrating opening round on the '07 bike, Hayden also enjoyed a much better race at Jerez - taking the latest '08 chassis to fourth place in both qualifying and the race.
