GP of Japan: Ducati Team begins overseas transfer with Twin Ring Motegi race

2014-10-07 22:29
The Ducati Team is gearing up to tackle Sunday’s Grand Prix of Japan, round 15 of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship and the first leg in a tough overseas end-of-season triple-header, which will continue with two more rounds in Australia and Malaysia in the next two weekends.

The Twin Ring Motegi circuit, which has been the venue for a round of the premier category in Japan since 1999 (called the Pacific GP from 2000 to 2003), has a very unusual layout, with a series of long straights followed by tight corners that are a tough test for the brakes of the bikes and their performance in acceleration.

In recent years the Ducati Team has scored some excellent results at this circuit; in particular the four victories obtained by Loris Capirossi and Casey Stoner, who won his first world title with Ducati in 2007 at Motegi. Andrea Dovizioso likes the Japanese circuit and has appeared on the podium in all three categories, winning the 125cc race in 2004, while Cal Crutchlow qualified on the front row in 2012 but last year was unable to go any higher than seventh place in the race.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04)
“Motegi is a track that I like, especially because I am a hard braker and this is an advantage, due to the characteristics of the track. I think that our GP14 can again be competitive in Japan, because in the last four races we have always been competitive at circuits with completely different characteristics. So for sure we’ll be going to Motegi very motivated! Here I’ve scored some good results in MotoGP, especially in 2010 when I set pole position, my only pole so far in MotoGP, and then finished the race with a great second place.”

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35)
“With a good result at Aragon under our belt, we are looking forward to going to Japan, where I’ve got a lot of fans, and hopefully we can keep improving. I’m pleased with the work the guys in the team have done with me recently, and obviously now we are in better shape than what we were before. Motegi is a bit of a strange track because of its hard braking, but that’s good for me and it will be interesting to see how we go there.”

Source: Ducati

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