Preview Grand Prix of United States, Laguna Seca

2013-07-18 07:05
Honda takes the road west to California looking for a third consecutive win at the United States
Grand Prix, with Honda riders holding the top two positions in the World Championship as the season reaches its halfway break.

Repsol Honda RC213V riders Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa lie first and second overall, and aim to
consolidate their positions at half-time. They are separated by only two points, so the result will be crucial for each.

The race, at the charismatic Laguna Seca circuit
between Monterey and Salinas, comes just seven
days after a dramatic German Grand Prix at the
Sachsenring, where the Repsol Honda pair suffered wildly contrasting fortunes.

Class rookie Marquez claimed a confident second
win of the year to overtake his team-mate and
re-assume the World Championship lead. Still only
20, he is the youngest rider in history to do so.

Pedrosa suffered a vicious accident in the third
free practice session, and was forced to withdraw from the race.

Marquez’s progress since he came to MotoGP this
year as Moto2 World Champion has been
sensational. The rider from Cervera, outside
Barcelona, has been breaking “youngest-ever”
records ever since his first pole position and
then first race win at only the second round, in Austin, Texas.

In the eight races since, Marquez has been on the
rostrum every time but once – a late-race crash
ruled him out of the Italian GP, when he was in a
confident second place. The final jewel in the
crown was his German GP win last Sunday, also achieved from pole position.

The highly technical Laguna Seca circuit presents
a new challenge. He has ridden in 125 and Moto2
classes at all the circuits on the calendar
except in Austin, Texas. That track was new to
all riders, and he was victorious. By contrast,
his rivals all have several years of experience
of the tricky Californian track; he has never seen it before.

Pedrosa’s season had been even stronger in
championship terms. He has led on points from
round four until his enforced withdrawal in
Germany’s round eight. Consecutive race wins in
Spain and France showed the strength of the
27-year-old Spaniard’s title challenge. A
register of consistently strong rostrum or
top-four finishes in every other race underlined its depth and maturity.

Hiatus in Germany was the result of a violent
low-speed high-side crash on his first flying lap
of Saturday morning’s free practice: a cold track
took part of the blame: the rider was not yet
pushing at full speed. A heavy impact left
Pedrosa with a partially fractured left
collarbone, but it was low blood pressure
attributed to shock that saw him ruled out by
track medical authorities on race morning, in
spite of his initial willingness to ride.

Pedrosa returned to Barcelona and quickly cast
off the symptoms, telling fans on Tuesday he
“felt good”, and was looking forward to the race
and a satisfactory end to the first half of the
season. Dani has claimed four podium positions in
eight visits to the circuit, including
consecutive top-three results in the last two
years. The highlight was victory in 2009.

It is the second visit to the Californian circuit
for German LCR Honda RC213V rider Stefan Bradl.
He arrived last year in the same position as
Marquez this year: reigning Moto2 champion but
circuit novice. He rode to an impressive seventh place.

This year, Bradl (23) consolidated a row of
improving results with his second fourth place
this year at home in Germany. He has his sights
firmly set on attaining a first MotoGP-class rostrum at the Californian track.

Spaniard Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda
Gresini RC213V) raced to fifth in Germany, his
best result of the year as he regains momentum
after falling victim to two consecutive first-lap
crashes in rounds five and six.

The former 125cc World Champion has a dual role
as racer/tester: he alone uses Showa suspension,
helping with pioneering development. Bautista and
his Gresini team have recorded steady progress
with this task over the first eight races of the
season, and he hopes to improve on his eight-placed finish in last year’s race.

Team-mate Bryan Staring (Team GO&FUN Honda
Gresini FTR Honda) is approaching his first visit
to Laguna Seca in sober frame of mind, after a
bruising series of crashes in Germany. Still
hungry to add to the first two points he gained
in Catalunya in round five, the Australian has
adapted well as he gains experience on the
CBR1000RR-powered CRT bike. At the same time,
learning the intricacies of the circuit pose a new challenge.

Laguna Seca is a long-established circuit in
hilly country inland from Monterey’s picturesque bay and historic Cannery Row.

At 2.243 miles (3.610 km) it is the shortest
circuit of the season, but not the slowest (that
mark belongs to the next circuit on the calendar,
Indianapolis), and Turn 1 is a famously
challenging sweep taken at close to top speed
while preparing for the much tighter corner to follow.

Even more famous is the Corkscrew, a tortuous
left-right approached from a blind rise, with a
giddying drop in the middle of it. Races have
been won and lost at this notorious corner set.

Laguna first hosted the US GP in 1988, in an
interrupted six-race series that terminated in
1994. The race returned in 2005, now uniquely for
the MotoGP class only; and in the last nine years
has been re-established as a charismatic highlight of the calendar.

As the ninth of 18 rounds, it also marks the
mid-point of the 2013 season. There is a
three-weekend summer break, then MotoGP begins in
earnest once more, with the all-classes Indianapolis GP on August 18.

Honda has a strong record on the Californian
roller-coaster track, with five victories in nine
visits. Nicky Hayden won the first two years in a
row, Dani Pedrosa in 2009, and Casey Stoner in 2011 and 2012.


Honda MotoGP rider quotes

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda
“Winning in Germany was good experience, although
I perhaps prefer races that are a little more of
a battle, and also with Dani and Jorge Lorenzo
present. I hope they are recovering well. Laguna
Seca will be a hard GP for me because I’ve never
ridden there. We’ll take it step-by-step and
remain calm, and learn the lines. I will prepare
by watching a lot of videos of races there.”


Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda
“I want to thank everybody for the many messages
of support I have received. The important thing
is that I feel good. I will have to see how
things go with regards to the collarbone, but as
for the rest of the problems the really important
thing is that I am feeling well. It was a real
blow because we arrived at the Sachsenring in a
good position in terms of the World Championship,
but that’s racing and you have to keep looking
forward. The championship is long and we are
still only roughly halfway through it, so a lot can still happen yet.”


Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP
“We have been very competitive and very fast for
the whole weekend in Sachsenring and the great
support of my fans made this round even better
for me. Now it’s time to enjoy the Corkscrew
again. Laguna Seca race track is great and I have
more experience this year to cope with the
rollercoaster there. Actually our overall package
is pretty competitive so we aim to catch the
podium in the US. It won’t be easy but, in the
last rounds, we have demonstrated our skills
racing with the guys in the front, so a
podium-finish would a perfect result before the summer vacation.”


Alvaro Bautista, FUN&GO Honda Gresini
“It wasn’t an easy weekend in Germany but we came
out of it with a positive result. I found more
confidence with the bike around most of the track
but I was losing too much time in the second
sector and we didn’t manage to fix it in time for
the race. Anyway, we made some positive steps and
certainly improved on Assen. It has helped lift
morale in the team and now we go to another
tricky circuit in Laguna, with its elevation
changes and blind corners. It is a tough track
but we will do our best to adapt quickly. We
struggled with the suspension here last year but
we have made some good progress in this area
since then and I am sure that if we are
methodical in our work we can make sure we have a
competitive RC213V to race on Sunday. I am
confident because the team is working well and
this makes me think we can be fighting for a good result this weekend.”


Bryan Staring, FUN&GO Honda Gresini
“I am still upset with the weekend at
Sachsenring. Four crashes in one weekend is too
much and I feel sorry for the team because they
are putting so much work in. I knew it was going
to be hard but I didn’t know it would be this
hard. My confidence has taken a battering and
Laguna Seca is not the easiest circuit to be
going to next. It is a difficult track but I have
to stay calm, work hard and rely on the
unrelenting hard work of the team. I will have to
concentrate hard from the start to learn the best
lines around the track and then start working on
the set-up of the bike as quickly as possible. We
will be doing everything we can to put the weekend in Germany behind us.”


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