HONDA RIDERS LEAD MOTOGP HOME TO MOTEGI

2014-10-07 13:19
Three intensive weekends of grand prix racing
gets under way at Honda’s Motegi Twin Ring
circuit on Sunday, with the factory pair of
Repsol Honda RC213V riders Marc Marquez and Dani
Pedrosa leading the way as the 2014 championship battle nears its conclusion.

With just four rounds remaining, the long-haul
journey to Japan, Australia and Malaysia is
followed by the closing round in Valencia, Spain.

The title is almost certain to be decided before
that point, after 2013 champion Marquez’s
remarkable title defence – amassing a massive
points lead by winning the first ten races and
the 12th, finishing fourth at the one in between.

At the last two rounds, at Misano and Aragon,
however, Marquez’s momentum was interrupted. He
slipped off early at the Italian circuit,
remounting to finish 15th; and at Aragon, in a
brutally difficult rain-hit race, he crashed out
of a strong lead in the closing stages, again remounting, to finish 13th.

Even so, the 21-year-old from Cervera still has a
firm grip on a classic second successive title.
He leads his closest rival by 75 points. All he
needs to do at Motegi is to finish ahead of him, and he will be unbeatable.

That rival is his own Repsol Honda team-mate Dani
Pedrosa, one of only three other riders to take a
race win this season. Multi-champion Valentino
Rossi (Yamaha) also has a mathematic chance of
victory, but is 78 points adrift.

As well as his win at Brno, Pedrosa has claimed
second place on three occasions, and five thirds,
to put himself second overall. This is in spite
of an early-season issue with arm-pump problems,
requiring remedial surgery after the start of the
European season. Pedrosa’s only bad result was a
carbon-copy of Marquez’s Aragon experience. After
leading the race on slick tyres on an
increasingly wet track, he fell one lap earlier
than his team-mate. He was also able to continue, and finished 14th.

Both the Repsol Honda RC213V riders have a strong record at the Motegi circuit.

Marquez won the 125 race in 2010, taking the
entry-class championship the same year. In 2011
he moved to Moto2, finishing second at Motegi;
adding a stunning race win in 2012 – his Moto2
championship year – after he was left on the line
at the start. Last year he finished second in the
MotoGP race, also going on to win the title.

Pedrosa has won at the Honda-owned circuit four
times in a career that has netted a 125cc and two
250cc World Championships. He won the 125 race in
2002, taking the title the following year; and
the 250 race in 2004, finishing second the next
year, and winning the title both years. He added
MotoGP wins in 2011 and 2012, with three third places, the last in 2013.

Two more riders campaign the class-leading Honda
RC213V factory V4 MotoGP racers.

German former Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl is the
more successful, riding the LCR Honda RC213V.
Also a previous Motegi winner, on a 125 in 2008,
Bradl was fifth in last year’s MotoGP race, and
sixth the previous year. This year his best
finishes have been a pair of fourth places – at
Austin, Texas and at the last round at Aragon. He
lies ninth overall, only five points off eighth.
His goal of a top-three podium finish remains top of his agenda.

The second satellite-team rider Alvaro Bautista
(GO&FUN Gresini Honda RC213V) did make the podium
at Le Mans in France, but several race crashes
have dented his overall score, and he is placed
11th overall. The Spanish former 125cc champion,
also a former Motegi race winner in 250 in 2009,
has a special role. He and GO&FUN team-mate Scott
Redding exclusively race-develop Japanese Showa
suspension and Nissin brakes, made by companies closely associated with Honda.

Redding is the top scorer among four riders
campaigning the new-this-year Honda RCV1000R
production racer, a close copy of the 1000cc V4
RC213V. The British youngest-ever grand prix
winner has finished in the top ten three times, and lies a close 13th overall.

Honda’s former 250cc World Champion Hiroshi
Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R), is the
next, one place lower and only nine points away,
after finishing eighth in Aragon, his best result
of the year, and his third time in the top ten.
Aoyama has won twice at Motegi, in 2005 and 2006, in the 250 class.

His Drive M7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R team-mate Nicky
Hayden claimed his second top-ten finish at
Aragon, but the 2006 MotoGP World Champion has
had a troubled season, plagued by an old wrist
injury that forced him to withdraw from round six
in Italy, and then to miss four races, after
radical surgery during the summer break. The
determined American rider returned at Aragon to finish ninth.

Hayden is 16th overall; the fourth RCV1000R rider
Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) is one
place lower and three points down, after an
up-and-down season with three non-finishes, but a
highlight of finishing top Open (non-factory)
bike at Misano. The law graduate from the Czech
Republic is anxious to repeat the feat at Motegi,
where he claimed a podium finish in 2010.

A Honda victory is assured in the intermediate
Moto2 category, where all competitors are
supplied with identical race-tuned Honda CBR600
engines by the organisers. This assures not only
close competition, but also reliable racing.

The season has been disputed by a pair of
team-mates, both riding Kalex machines for the Marc VDS Racing Team.

Spaniard Tito Rabat took the early initiative,
with four victories in the first seven races. In
the mid-season, Finnish star Mika Kallio closed
the gap to, at one stage, just seven points, with
three wins and a string of strong second places.
After the summer break, however, Rabat has again
played the stronger hand, adding three more wins.
He arrives in Japan with an advantage of 33
points, but last year crashed out of the race.
The battle remains tense: a single non-finish
could throw the title fight wide open again.

At the same time, class rookie Maverick Vinales
(Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Pons Kalex) has one hand
firmly on a debut third overall, after adding a
second race win at the last round at Aragon. With
three second places and one third, the reigning
Moto3 champion has the chance to climb even
higher. With four rounds and 100 points
available, he is currently 41 points behind
Kallio, and 61 clear of fourth place.

That position is held by Swiss rider Dominique
Aegerter (Technomag-carXpert Suter), who claimed
his maiden GP win at round nine in the Germany.
Three other podium finishes have given him a
27-point lead over fellow Swiss rider, former
125cc champion Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Suter).

French racer Johann Zarco (Caterham
Caterham-Suter) has moved up to sixth overall
with a pair of third places at the last two
rounds, at the expense of Italy’s Simone Corsi
(NGM Forward Racing Kalex). The experienced
Italian has missed the last two rounds after
suffering serious wrist injuries at the British
GP, and will also miss the three flyaway races.

Second ex-Moto3 star Luis Salom (Paginas
Amarillas HP 40 Kalex) is eighth overall, after
two podium finishes undermined by a number of
crashes. Former Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese
(Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex) and Assen GP winner
Anthony West (QMMF Speed Up) complete the top ten.

In Moto3, the closest battle of the series, Honda
is up against machines from KTM and Mahindra, and
took the World Championship lead for the first
time at the last round in Aragon.

There are six of the upgraded Honda NSF250RW
machines on the grid, and four riders have
claimed at least one win apiece, as the new
machine started strongly and continued to gain maturity.

Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda team-mates Alex
Marquez and Alex Rins have each taken two wins,
and Marquez – younger brother of MotoGP champion
Marc – has backed up his wins with five second
places to be the top scorer; the latest at
Aragon, where he deposed long-time points leader Jack Miller (KTM).

Marquez, who claimed his first GP win at Motegi
last year, has an advantage of 11 points, but
there is still everything to play for over the
last four races: Rins is only 18 points off the
lead, third overall, with another KTM rider,
Romano Fenati, lying fourth, and still in touch.

Efren Vazquez (SaxoPrint-RTG Honda), winner at
Indianapolis, is fifth overall, only 11 points
behind Fenati; and Brno winner Alexis Masbou
(Ongetta-Rivacold Honda) lies sixth, after a strong campaign.

The other two NSF250RW machines are ridden by
Scotsman John McPhee (SaxoPrint-RTG Honda), who
lies 13th overall in a strong second GP season,
including a lap record at the Catalunyan round;
and Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Ongetta-AirAsia Honda), placed 20th.

The Twin Ring road-racing circuit, built by Honda
in mountainous countryside some 120 km north-east
of Tokyo, is part of a much larger complex, and
is integrated with a banked oval circuit …
uniquely the MotoGP bikes pass under the banking
to the countryside beyond and return to the
start-finish line via two dramatic underpasses.

With 14 corners, eight to the right, the first
part of the circuit features especially hard
braking and acceleration round U-shaped bends,
and there is more of the same as well as faster
corners out beyond the first underpass. The
circuit is so hard on brakes that special
regulations for the MotoGP class make the
nowadays optional larger front discs compulsory – up from 320 to 340 mm.

MotoGP first ran at Motegi in 1999, and there
have been 15 races there since, including four
Pacific GPs as a second Japanese round in
addition to Suzuka. Since 2004 it has been the
permanent home of the Japanese GP. Honda has six
wins out of 15, more than any other manufacturer.

The complex also features kart, oval dirt-track
and trials courses and driver-training facilities
plus the Honda Collection Hall, where not only
historic Honda racing and production cars and
motorcycles but also important rival machines
star in an internationally renowned museum.


MotoGP Honda rider quotes

Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez says:
“Aragon was a difficult situation and we learnt a
valuable lesson. However, we were lucky that we
didn’t lose points to our rivals and now I know
that in Japan it’s my first chance to take the
championship. I will try not to think about it
too much – even if I know it would be great to
achieve this on Honda’s home soil. We will go
there and work hard from day one and treat it as
a normal race weekend and push for the victory on
Sunday. Last year was my first visit to Motegi on
a MotoGP machine and it was a very difficult
weekend, so we hope to have more dry track time
this year to find a good set-up.”

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa says:
“Obviously Aragon was a tough race and in the end
I made the wrong choice not to come in earlier.
Anyway, we have moved on and now I am focused on
Motegi. I always enjoy travelling to Honda’s home
race, it’s a big event for Honda and this always
gives me extra motivation to perform well. The
track has a lot of heavy braking and acceleration
points, so a good set-up is essential for the
braking stability and to get good traction out of
the corners. Let’s hope the weather is better than last year.”

LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl says:
“I am really looking forward to the overseas
races, especially after my positive fourth place
at Aragon. Motegi is a special race track for HRC
riders and I have been always consistent there
aboard my RCV. Last year, after my injury in
Malaysia, I managed to finish the race in fifth
position anyway. With four races to go I have to
do my maximum for scoring further points and I
think we have the potential to end this season
with good results on every race track.”

GO&FUN Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista says:
“Motegi is a very unique track: it’s usually
called a ‘Honda’ track because of its stop-and-go
layout, which requires good traction.
Unfortunately, lately we’re struggling with that,
but we hope to continue to grow and to start in
the best possible way the first of three races in
a row. At the race at Aragon we were fighting to
get into the top five in both dry and wet
condition, and this is a positive sign. The track
does not particularly excite me, but in the last
two years I’ve always been very strong there. I
hope to be able to find quickly a good set-up
that can allow me to be consistent, then we will give our best in the race.”

GO&FUN Gresini Honda rider Scott Redding says:
“We are fresh from two difficult races, Misano
and Aragon, but I think we have the potential to
bounce back in the three flyaway races, starting
from Motegi. Moreover, in the first half of the
race at Aragon we were the top production Honda,
then the arrival of the rain changed everything.
I’m looking forward to going out on track at
Motegi aboard a MotoGP bike and I hope to have a
nice weekend, given that last year in Moto2 I had
to race with an injured wrist and I was involved
in a crash during the first lap of the race, losing my title hopes,”

Drive M7 Aspar Honda rider Hiroshi Aoyama says:
“Next weekend is my home Grand Prix. Racing in
Japan is always an extra source of motivation,
because I am surrounded by my family, friends and
fans. We go into the race in good form: we took a
big step forward at Aragon and we’re moving in
the right direction. We made some changes to the
set-up that improved the handling and speed of
the bike so hopefully we can continue to improve
it at Motegi. I know the circuit well, which is a
good thing, but the hard acceleration zones and
long straights won’t necessarily help us compared
to the factory bikes. Even so we will look to do
our best. We closed the gap to the factory riders
at Motorland so let’s see if we can get even
closer. Motegi, Phillip Island and Sepang are
hugely different tracks from one to the next but
we have a good base set-up so we can look ahead
to this run of races with optimism.”

Drive M7 Aspar Honda rider Nicky Hayden says:
“The Grand Prix of Japan is always an interesting
and different weekend. It’s a special atmosphere,
the fans are passionate and Japan is the home of
most of the biggest motorcycle manufacturers in
the world. I love racing in Japan and I have had
some good times there in the past, in fact last
year I started from the front row at Motegi,
which was good. This weekend will be tough
because I am still working hard physically to get
back to my best shape and Motegi is a demanding
track, with some of the hardest braking on the
whole calendar. Obviously that’s not ideal for a
rider that has under gone major wrist surgery
recently but at Aragon I was able to get a feel
for riding again and I am looking forward to
giving my best to be as fast and competitive as
possible in Japan. This is still a recovery phase
for me and I know it will take another couple of
races to get back to full strength, but I will
not stop working until we get there. It’s a
demanding three weeks ahead but I love the
flyaway races because we go to three very
different but equally interesting circuits.”

Cardion AB Motoracing Honda rider Karel Abraham says:
“Motegi is a difficult track, with a lot of hard
braking and acceleration from slow corners. The
braking is not a problem, but we will feel the
difference with the factory bikes out of the
corners. I missed the race there last year
because of my operation, so I am glad to be fit
enough now for all the flyaway rounds. As always,
my aim is first to be the top production Honda rider.”


Moto2 rider quotes

Marc VDS Racing Team rider Tito Rabat says:
“I like the Motegi circuit, but it’s one that
holds good and bad memories for me. Two years ago
I had my first Moto2 podium there, but last year
I crashed out of the race on the opening lap and
was lucky to walk away uninjured. This year I
head to Japan with the same approach and the same
goal as for every race so far this season; to
work hard with the team, to give 100 percent all
weekend and, in the race, hopefully fight once again for the win.”

Marc VDS Racing Team rider Mika Kallio says:
“While it’s not one of my favourite tracks,
Motegi has always been good for me in terms of
results in the past. It’s a stop start track,
where stability under heavy braking is critical,
so we will have some set-up work to do in free
practice. The weather is notoriously
unpredictable at Motegi, as we saw last year, but
rain this weekend could well be to my advantage,
as I’ve been a little stronger in the wet than
Tito this season and it could be just what I need
to fight back for the championship. Anyway, we will keep fighting.”

Paginas Amarillas HP 40 rider Maverick Vinales says:
“We can try to win more races because we are at a
good level now. Race by race I have more
experience of the Moto2 bike and my starts are
getting better, which so far had been the worst
point for me. So I want to try to win some more
races and try to put some pressure on Tito,
though it will be difficult, because for me to
have a chance of the title he needs to make a mistake.”


Moto3 Honda rider quotes

Estrella Galicia 0,0 rider Alex Marquez says:
“Motegi is a circuit that will always be special
to me, because I scored my first victory in the
World Championship there last year. That should
make us work harder in practice, since our
motivation is even greater than normal. It’s also
an important race for Honda, because it is their
home, so we will try to be very focused.”

Estrella Galicia 0,0 rider Alex Rins says:
“I come into this Grand Prix just 18 points
behind the leader and closer to the top than
ever. I really want to get out there and start
competing, because I always get very motivated
for this race. At Motegi you never know what will
happen, because the weather changes a lot as it
did last year, when it rained. The circuit is
Honda’s home track, so we have to do well to give them a good result.”

SaxoPrint-RTG rider Efren Vazquez says:
“It is important to regain the momentum of the
early season after a few difficult races. Motegi
is a difficult track, and not one of my
favourites – I have never had a really good
result there. But every race is a new race, and I
don’t make changes to my plan: hard work in every
session to find a good set-up, then give my
maximum in the race. I can’t do any more than that, and never any less.”

Source: Honda Pro Image

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