The Spaniard is fresh off the back of his third win of the season whilst his Italian team-mate on the Repsol Honda team is aiming for a home podium this weekend at Misano.
With little time to dwell on the weekend’s happenings at Indianapolis the Repsol Honda team, along with the remainder of the MotoGP field, turn their focus to Misano and the Gran Premio Aperol di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini as Round 12 beckons.
For Indy race winner Dani Pedrosa a third victory of the season has boosted his confidence further and he will now attempt to improve on last season’s podium finish of third at Misano.
“We are at a very competitive moment right now and three wins so far this year is more than I had in my previous MotoGP seasons,” said the Spanish rider. “I’m feeling very confident for the next races. Indianapolis was great and it was very satisfying to win such a physically demanding race however, we don’t have so much time to recover before Misano this weekend. Having said that, we’ll be ready. The team is in a good mood and we have proved that we can be competitive for many races in a row, so we want to continue this form.”
At 68 points off leader Lorenzo and in second place Pedrosa is the closest challenger to his fellow Spaniard and rival. “The gap in the Championship to Lorenzo is still very big and he has been very consistent, so our goal for the rest of the season is simply to continue being competitive at every GP and give ourselves the chance to win races, starting with another one this weekend,” explained Pedrosa.
“Misano has been a difficult circuit for Honda in the last few years but this time we will try to do the best possible job and be right at the front once again. We’ll have to do a very good job to find the right setting and get good traction - as we did in Indianapolis.”
Dovizioso is also a man full of concentration as his home GP arrives. The Italian is currently third in the Championship and is seeking a return to the podium on a track at which he has a best premier class result of fourth, from last season.
“We arrive in Misano in very determined mood; our target is the podium,” stated the 24 year-old. “In Indianapolis we were fast during the race weekend but we couldn’t maintain consistent speed for the whole race distance and this is something we must work on and improve. Now we need to score some strong results. I’m feeling very positive about this GP because compared to last year we have progressed a lot.”
He continued: “I’m confident. Misano is a special track for me, not only because it’s my home GP - in fact I live only 70kms away - but because I raced my first “real” race bike there in 2000. It was an incredible experience, and at that moment I had the feeling that something big and special was happening.”
No comments:
Post a Comment