Honda reacts to long-awaited MotoGP title success
Casey Stoner ended Honda's drought of MotoGP title success, by winning the 2011 world championship on Sunday in Australia.
Honda won 10 of the 13 premier-class Riders' titles between 1994 and 2006, but had suffered four winless seasons until new-signing Stoner returned them to the top in the final year of 800cc competition.
Shuhei Nakamoto, the vice-president of Honda Racing Corporation, said he felt a mixture of joy and relief.
"The feeling is of course very happy, today I can relax [a] little bit, because almost every night I wake up thinking about something, doing some memo to remember to check or do something... this is my first feeling after the race!" he said.
"I want to say to all Honda fans and sponsors, thank you very much for your support and especially to all Honda people and in particular to everyone at HRC and in Honda R&D centre. Then I'd like to thank the Repsol Honda Team crew, all of them!
"A big thanks to all our Honda riders that push each other during this season and achieved great results. Then of course I want to thank Casey Stoner. He did a great job since the first day he rode the RC212V and he brings great enthusiasm to everybody in HRC.
"Tonight we will celebrate, but starting from tomorrow morning we will start working again to finish this season at top, win the Teams' Championship and to prepare the 2012 new challenge with the 1000cc".
Stoner's victory also handed Honda the 2011 MotoGP Constructors' title, with two rounds still to go. It marks the 60th time that Honda has been crowned a grand prix Constructors' champion; 18 in 500cc/MotoGP, 6 in 350cc, 19 in 250cc, 15 in 125cc and 2 in 50cc.
"It is with great pride that I stand here on the day Honda takes its 60th Constructors Title," stated Tetsuo Suzuki, HRC President, Managing Director Of Honda R&D.
"We have a very proud and long history since Mr. Soichiro Honda first declared to enter road racing in 1954, working hard to develop and produce the most innovative machines.
"It is a credit to our dedicated team who always strive to break boundaries and expand our engineering methods to create these wonderful bikes and to our talented riders with whom this feat would not have been possible.
"I would also like to thank all our sponsors and technical partners for their valuable support and input, it has been five years since we won our last Championship and I am honoured to see that HRC is back and stronger than ever.
"Thank you to Casey, Dani and Andrea and all the team that work so hard, week in and week out, and also a very special thanks must go to all our fans across the globe, we appreciate every one of you".
Honda is now on course to repeat the triple MotoGP title success of Yamaha in recent seasons, since Repsol Honda holds a 76-point lead in the Teams' World Championship.
