The Repsol Honda Team heads to this weekend’s Grand Prix of Catalunya with riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden in contrasting moods. Pedrosa’s combative ride to second place in last Sunday’s Italian GP sets up the Spaniard nicely for a strong showing at his home race. Hayden on the other hand will be searching for a reversal of the poor fortune the World Champion has experienced in the first third of the 2007 MotoGP season.
Pedrosa was born only 15km from the challenging Montmelo circuit and will be determined to put on a competitive display for the Barcelona crowd, which last year totaled an amazing 194,264 spectators for the weekend. As if any more motivation were necessary, the 21-year-old will be spurred on by the events of last year’s race where the MotoGP debutant was knocked down in the dramatic first corner crash that prompted a restart. The Spaniard’s subsequent retirement from the race was a blemish on his otherwise excellent record at the 4.727km (2.937-mile) track. In the 125cc class Pedrosa was 2nd in 2002 and won the race in 2003. He then took 2nd in 2004 and the win in 2005 at Catalunya on his way to back-to-back 250cc titles.
Hayden would be delighted to repeat last year’s race-long scrap for the lead he was involved in with Valentino Rossi in Catalunya. The popular American World Champion is surely due a change in fortune in Spain having endured a torrid start to the 2007 season in which a string of bad luck has compounded machine set-up difficulties. The 25-year-old will be hoping to remedy some of those problems in Barcelona – at a circuit he likes and where he holds the lap record from last year’s race.
The 25-lap Cinzano Grand Prix of Catalunya begins at 14.00hrs on Sunday, following Friday’s practice sessions, and qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Dani Pedrosa – World Championship Position: 3rd – 82 points:
“I’m really looking forward to my home race at Barcelona. We’ve had quite good results in the last two races at Le Mans and Mugello so I hope I can keep this form going. Last year’s race here was a disaster because I was involved in the big first corner crash. I was not injured which was lucky but then I crashed again in the restarted race, so I hope things go a lot smoother this year. We had a good improvement from the Michelin tyres at the last race in Mugello compared to China and Turkey so there are positive signs for our competitiveness for the next few races. The Barcelona track is one I like from a layout point of view and there are some technical and challenging corners here. There’s also a long straight like at Mugello so it will be interesting to see how the speeds compare again. I always get a lot of support at this race, and because we didn’t have the IRTA test before the season this will be the first time this year that the local fans have seen MotoGP. I really want to give them the result they’re hoping for and we’ll certainly be trying to battle right at the front again.
Nicky Hayden – World Championship Position: 11th – 36 points:
“Barcelona is a track I like and I’ve had some decent results here, including second last year, so I’ll be looking to find some answers and get a strong finish this weekend. It’s a really good circuit, really safe to ride and there’s always a good atmosphere because they definitely love their bike racing in Spain. This will be the first season we’ve come here having not tested in the winter. Normally we do one pre-season test which gives us a pretty good base setting but this time there was no test so we’ll be riding the new 800cc bike for the first time here. That means they’ll be plenty of work to do in practice and we’ll be trying to find a better feeling on the machine that allows me to ride the way I want to because I need to get some stronger results going. We’ve had a pretty rough ride so far this season but the team’s working really hard and we’re giving it everything to get out of this hole we’re in.”
Dani Pedrosa
Racing number 26
Race machine RC212V
Date of birth September 29, 1985
Birthplace Castellar del Valles - Spain
Height 1.59 m
Weight 52 kg
Hobbies Music, Internet
First race 1997 Pocket bike racing.
Grand Prix debut 2001, 125cc Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka
First Grand Prix win 2002, 125cc Dutch Grand Prix, Assen
Total Grand Prix wins 25 – 8 x 125cc, 15 x 250cc, 2 x MotoGP
Total Grand Prix podium places 52 – 17 x 125cc, 24 x 250cc, 11 x MotoGP
Total Grand Prix pole positions 23 – 9 x 125cc, 9 x 250cc, 5 x MotoGP
World championships 3 – 1 x 125cc, 2003, 2 x 250cc in 2004 and 2005
Results at Catalunya
2001 7th (125cc)
2002 2nd (125cc)
2003 1st (125cc)
2004 2nd (250cc)
2005 1st (250cc)
2006 DNF (MotoGP)
Nicky Hayden
Racing number 1
Race bike Honda RC212V
Date of birth July 30, 1981
Birthplace Owensboro, Kentucky, USA
Height 1.73m
Weight 68kg
Hobbies Dirt track racing, music
First race 1986, dirt track
Grand Prix debut 2003, MotoGP, Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka
First Grand Prix win 2005, MotoGP, United States Grand Prix – Laguna Seca
Total Grand Prix wins 3 x MotoGP
Total Grand Prix podium places 20 x MotoGP
Total Grand Prix pole positions 4 x MotoGP
World Championships 1 x MotoGP, 2006
Results at Catalunya (MotoGP):
2003: 9th,
2004: DNF,
2005: 5th,
2006: 2nd
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