Sunday pm - Honda Close the Gap as the Battle Shifts to Donington
What a gift
Dani Pedrosa has given to British fans. The MotoGP championship now moves to Donington Park for the eighth round with the Spaniard rider only seven points behind
Valentino Rossi in the title chase, and with the balance perhaps starting to swing towards the Repsol Honda camp.
Consider this: both Rossi and Pedrosa recorded top speeds of 323kph/200.6mph on Montmelo's 1,047-metre front straight during the weekend. That was plenty for Pedrosa to win easily, and it was only 3-5kph slower than the quickest Ducatis, the horsepower kings – up to now – of
MotoGP.
But the pneumatic-valve Honda, which Pedrosa and
Nicky Hayden will test at Montmelo tomorrow and Tuesday, is around 10kph quicker than the valve-spring model that they have used so far. This is the opinion of Honda HRC test rider Tady Okada, who has also confirmed that it revs 1,000rpm higher.
So imagine Pedrosa with that kind of firepower under his diminutive frame. Even Valentino's track-craft might wilt under that kind of pressure.
Dani himself is looking a lot more relaxed these days. He admits that he's naturally shy, and he used to freeze up at press conferences and give frigid yes-no responses to questions. Now he's talking more freely, and the fans are warming to him. He got a tremendous reception on every lap from the 113,000 who lined the track today.
Jorge Lorenzo will presumably return to racing at
Donington, giving Brits their first glimpse of his prodigious talent on a MotoGP bike. And, make no mistake about it,
James Toseland will try and score the first podium of his MotoGP career at Donington, now that he's come off the back of five consecutive circuits at which he's neither raced or seriously tested previously. It could be a phenomenal weekend.
Sunday pm – West to Japan to Sort Kawasaki's Problems
Kawasaki's
Anthony West will miss the MotoGP test session at Barcelona this week to fly to Japan to work with engineers on the ZX-RR's traction problems on the exit from corners.
