Dani Pedrosa will be chasing his third MotoGP victory in a row, and fifth of the season, in front of his home Spanish fans at the new Aragon circuit this weekend.
The Repsol Honda rider has lost out to compatriot and world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo at the two previous Spanish events, at Jerez and then Catalunya, but with a 63 point deficit to the Fiat Yamaha rider Pedrosa has little to lose by pushing all-out for victory this weekend.
Like most of the MotoGP frontrunners, Pedrosa has tried the track on a street bike.
“I'm looking forward to arriving at MotorLand Aragon and trying the new track on the RC212V," began Dani. "I did some laps in July with a CBR1000RR street bike and I really enjoyed the layout - I loved the circuit.
"It's very different to the ones we are used to racing at in the MotoGP championship, and so it will be really interesting this weekend. The circuit combines fast and slow corners which are quite technical, and the last straight and finish line section is going to be amazing. There are also some blind turns where you need to look for references outside the track.
"The facilities are very high spec and it looks like the fans are in for a treat at this race.
"It's always very nice to race in Spain and I can imagine that the atmosphere will be incredible; I'm looking forward to meeting the Spanish fans again. Me and the team also arrive in a very good mood thanks to the great job we have been doing and our good results in the last races.
"It will be a challenge for everybody this weekend and we need to make the most of the practice sessions - in this area we have improved a lot in the second part of the season. Our bike has been working well at very different circuits, so I hope we can also do a good job in Aragon. I'm really looking forward to this grand prix.”
Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso has also sampled the Aragon track on a road bike, as recently as last Wednesday.
“I had the chance to do some laps on a CBR1000RR last week which was good fun and let me learn the basic layout and get some ideas on how to start the machine set-up for the RC212V on Friday.," said the Italian, whose third place in the championship is coming under threat from Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner.
"The Aragon track is really nice, it has a lot of elevation changes and many of the braking areas occur where the bike is leaning over, which makes it quite technical and means there are many points where it should be possible to overtake. Because of this I think we will see a very good race.
"For us it is important to have an idea of the track in advance to give us a head start with the set-up of the RC212V. We are very determined to score a good result in Aragon. At Misano and in the previous races we have been fast and close to the front, but now we need to take the final step and convert that speed into a strong result at the end of the race. This is the target for the weekend.”
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