Sete: You know how I want to finish it...
Spanish hero Sete Gibernau returns home this weekend where he will be hoping to celebrate wrapping up second in the championship with his fifth win of a rollercoaster 2003 season.
The year has easily been the best of Gibernau's career, a switch to Honda helping him achieve regular success and mount a serious world championship challenge for the first time. But such achievements are balanced by the loss of friend and team-mate Daijiro Kato, who died after injuries sustained at the season-opening Japanese GP.
Spanish hero Sete Gibernau returns home this weekend where he will be hoping to celebrate wrapping up second in the championship with his fifth win of a rollercoaster 2003 season.
The year has easily been the best of Gibernau's career, a switch to Honda helping him achieve regular success and mount a serious world championship challenge for the first time. But such achievements are balanced by the loss of friend and team-mate Daijiro Kato, who died after injuries sustained at the season-opening Japanese GP.
"It's been a very emotional year, with a big tragedy and many successes," confessed the Telefonica Honda rider. "And a part of every success has been the strength we gained from that tragedy. I want to remember Daijiro always, he was my team-mate and he lost his life doing what he loved, the thing that I love."
Valencia is an unusual GP venue, designed specifically to allow spectators an unobstructed view of the entire circuit. No surprise then that it's the shortest racetrack on the GP calendar. But with 14 corners packed into its 4.005km it's a busy track, with riders enjoying only one brief rest per lap as they speed down the start-finish straight.
"It's a strange little track to ride around," smiled Gibernau. "It's pretty much all corners, which makes the tyres extra important because you're in and out of turns all the time. You really have to make the whole lap work at Valencia. There are no super-fast sections where you can make up half a second on the other guys, so you need to get every turn just right to gain a tenth here, a tenth there.
"This has been a great year for me, so you know how I want to finish it..." added the 30-year-old. "For sure we can be in the hunt at Valencia. I won there a couple of years back (in 2001, with Suzuki) and I know what's required to do the job again. It's not my favourite racetrack but that's not the point; there will be a lot of Spanish fans coming along and expecting me to win, so I have to try my best for them, as well as for myself and everyone around me."
