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HONDA RACING INFORMATION
ZitatAlles anzeigen2012 FIM ROAD RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND PRIX ROUND 12 AUGUST 24/25/25, 2012 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC PREVIEW MOTOGP, MOTO2, MOTO3
HONDA RIDERS HEAD BACK TO EUROPE AFTER SUCCESS IN U.S.
The summer break began and ended with victories in the U.S. for Honda riders, with Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC213V) winning in California at the start of the summer break and team-mate Dani Pedrosa taking victory in Indianapolis when the MotoGP World Championship resumed three weeks later. Now the championship moves back to the more traditional European circuits with the Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic for the 12th round.
Pedrosa proved he was rested and ready at the end of the summer break by scoring a dominant victory at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Starting from a new qualifying record pole position, the Spaniard went to the lead on the third of 28 laps and quickly broke the spirit of the competition. By the end of the race Pedrosa had run his lead to more than ten seconds as he confidently won his second race of the season, and became the first rider with two wins at the Brickyard.
Other than a fourth finish in the French Grand Prix, Pedrosa has been on the podium every race. That consistency has put him second in the championship to Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo.
Pedrosa has been on pole at Brno two of the past three years, with a pair of second place finishes.
The 2011 Czech Grand Prix was won by Stoner, who has very little time to recover from the rigours of the Indy GP. Stoner was one of three riders to high-side during MotoGP qualifying, with multiple trauma to his right lower leg, ankle and tendons. The World Champion was transported to a local hospital for treatment, which resulted in him being declared fit to ride by the FIM medical staff.
With a weakened right side, Stoner was forced to compensate on the mostly tight, slippery track. Eventually the toll was too great and Stoner slipped from third place to finish fourth. Considering the violence of his high-side and the ensuing damage, it was a heroic ride.
Having left Indianapolis on Monday, Stoner has had very little time to recuperate and faces a huge challenge to race this weekend.
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP RC213V) began his most consistent run with a fifth in his home grand prix at the Sachsenring. He followed that with a career MotoGP best fourth in Mugello, than finished seventh and sixth in the two American races. Bradl is now in sole possession of sixth place in the championship standings and certain to be the top rookie.
The German always looks forward to Brno, the track where he scored his first grand prix victory on a 125 in 2008. He was on the podium in last year's Moto2 race.
Alvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC213V) also won the 125cc GP at Brno. He continued his success in the 250 class with a second and a third. Since joining MotoGP the Spaniard has failed to finish at Brno, though he expects to change that this year after an encouraging race in Indianapolis. Bautista had not been able to build on his fourth place in the British Grand Prix, which he started from his first MotoGP pole, but his fifth place finish in Indianapolis was a step in the right direction.
Michele Pirro (San Carlo Honda Gresini FTR Honda) needs to make a similar step. The unlucky Italian has been knocked out of the past four races with mechanical problems in his rookie MotoGP season. He is hoping a change of scenery can put him back in the points. Prior to the non-finish string, Pirro had been in the points in five consecutive races.
Moto2 rider Marc Marquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol Suter) won his fifth race of the season in Indianapolis to stretch his championship lead to 39 points. The victory was important after his fifth place finish in Italy. Part of the credit goes to the new Suter chassis, which Marquez tested in Portimao, Portugal during the summer break.
Last year at Brno Marquez finished second by 0.161s amidst a run of victories. Had he won the race, he would have had a record string of seven Moto2 wins in a row.
The rider Marquez beat in Indianapolis was Pol Espargaro (Pons 40 HP Tuenti Kalex), his closest championship rival. Espargaro had gone into the summer break with a second-place finish in Mugello, which allowed him to close a bit on Marquez. But Marquez added five more points to his lead in Indy and now has a comfortable margin with seven races to go.
Espargaro had set a new Moto2 qualifying record on Saturday, but on Sunday the Spaniard could not replicate the feel from qualifying after choosing a different rear tyre.
Coming into Indy, Espargaro was tied with Andrea Iannone (Speed Master Speed Up) for second in the championship behind Marquez.
Iannone had an off day and finished ninth, but the Italian feels more confident about Brno, where he won the race last year.The Moto3 class went down to the line, though Maverick Vinales (Blusens Avintia FTR Honda) was not there to see it. The Spaniard had fallen at the 15th turn on the 16-turn IMS road course while going for the lead in a pack of three. Unable to re-start his motorcycle, Vinales could only lament his difficult day.
By failing to finish, Vinales lost 20 points to series leader Sandro Cortese (KTM), the German who finished second to race winner Luis Salom (KTM). The gap is 31 points, 184 to 155. Salom is a distant third with 129 point.
Team Italia FMI rider Romano Fenati (FTR Honda) continued his wild ride of a season by placing fifth in his first trip to America. Prior to the summer break the 16-year-old Italian nearly won his home round in Mugello, one of the few tracks on the Moto3 calendar he knew well.
Now he turns his attention to Brno, yet another track he will be seeing for the first time.Alexis Masbou (Caretta Technology Honda) was hoping to regain the form that took him to his first career podium in the German Grand Prix not long before the summer break. It did not happen in Indianapolis, where the 25-year-old Frenchman struggled with a lack of engine power. The team will fit a new engine in Brno, which he hopes will put him back into the podium mix.
The Brno Circuit has evolved greatly since replacing a road circuit in the first half of the 20th century. Motorcycles began racing in Brno in 1950 with the track in the eastern half of the former Czechoslovakia joining the World Championship in 1965 and running through 1977.
The current Brno Circuit was laid out along the natural contours of the land, but with heavily angled corners and straights that rarely bend. The first of the modern Czech GPs was won in 1987 by Honda's Wayne Gardner, who would go on to win the 500cc World Championship.
Gardner won again in 1988. The most dominant Honda period was from
1994 through 2004, with a roster of Honda riders winning eight of 11 races. Five-time Honda 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan won the first two years, with Max Biaggi, Tady Okada, Alex Criville, Sete Gibernau, and Valentino Rossi also taking the top spot in Brno.The 5.403km Brno Circuit is a more traditional grand prix circuit than the ones the MotoGP riders raced on in America for the previous two rounds. Laguna Seca is like no other track on the calendar, short and tight with elevation changes and no time to rest. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway track is a revised Formula One road course laid out inside the famous 2.5-mile oval.
Brno is a clockwise romp through the forested countryside, with eight rights and six lefts that should provide the 1000cc machines a venue for top speeds in excess of 300km/h. The track constantly changes elevation and is 15m wide, which produces high corner speeds and stresses on the right side of the tyres.
MotoGP Rider Quotes
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa says:
"Brno is a wide and very fast track, with high speed corners where it is important to have good grip and front-end feeling. Honda has been strong in the past few years there, so we hope to have a good performance in this race also. I'm looking forward to the race in Brno and to fight again for the victory. The setup of the bike and electronics can be key, as well as the weather, which is always a little changeable in the Czech Republic. We need to keep focused and strong and with options for the victory every weekend."Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner says:
"I'm not feeling too optimistic for Brno after a tough weekend in Indy. The crash in qualifying last week has left me with a serious problem in my ankle and we were fortunate that Indy was a left hand circuit, so a lot of the weight was off it, but we still had changes of direction, which hurt a lot. In Brno there are many changes in direction and a lot of right hand corners so there will be a lot of weight on my ankle and it's going to be very difficult. It's a shame as Brno is a circuit that I usually enjoy due to it's fast and flowing nature, so I'll be resting as much as possible this week and wait to see how we feel when we get on track on Friday."LCR Honda MotoGP rider Stefan Bradl says:
"Brno is a nice track for me because I won the first race in 2008, so it is always a special feeling. I think it's a good circuit, the layout is interesting and I enjoy riding there. I am looking forward to go there because we can perform very well. After Indy GP I want to be back to our standard form, which has been very strong so far in the season. It was a bit frustrating after the race in Indy, but Brno will be different."San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista says:
"I am particularly happy with the race in Indianapolis. Over the weekend we worked with great profit. I found the feeling I had before Mugello and this allows me to go to Brno feeling quite good. This weekend we need to confirm what we did in the U.S. I like Brno, but we need to work to have a very balanced bike, which will allow me to be fast in the tricky changes of direction. I am confident and very determined."San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Michele Pirro says:
"We were very unlucky to have another DNF at Indy, because we had worked well in practice and we had proved that we were fast. Now I hope that the team's engineers can solve this problem. We are not far behind the best CRT and I think we could have a good result at Brno, because know the track well and like it a lot. We certainly deserve a result for the team guys who work so hard and never stop believing in this project."
Moto2 Rider Quotes
Team CaixaCatalunya Repsol Suter rider Marc Marquez says:
"Brno comes immediately after my win in Indianapolis, so we are happy and in good shape. But this weekend we have to be focused from the start, just like we were last weekend. Brno is a very fast circuit and that means I will have a strong challenge from rivals like Iannone. Last year we got second at Brno and the aim once again is to be on the podium, to keep adding maximum points for the championship fight. Suter and the team worked very well at the Portimao test and in Indy, now we have to keep confirming that work."Pons 40 HP Tuenti Kalex rider Pol Espargaro says:
"Yeah, I like the track. Last year for us was a difficult year and I was not fast there, but I was not fast in the other circuits. It's a long one with fast corners, so good there. So I don't know; I don't know how we will do. I'm sure we have to work because the level of
Moto2 is so high now and I'm sure it will be difficult."Speed Master Speed Up rider Andrea Iannone says:
"Last weekend was tough for us, so we want to come back strong at Brno. We had some problems at Indy after half-distance, so all I could do was try to score as many points as possible. I won at Brno last year, but every year is very different, so we will have to see what we can do this time. As always, the team and I will do everything we can to earn a good result."
Moto3 Rider Quotes
Blusens Avintia FTR Honda rider Maverick Vinales says:
"The crash at Indy happened because I was pushing to the limit at every corner, and then I lost my line and found myself on a dirty section of track. I'm 29 points behind now, but there are many races to go, so we need to keep working hard and make sure that we are winning all the time! We do need some more power from the engine because the fight against the KTMs is tough."Team Italia FMI FTR Honda rider Romano Fenati says:
"Racing in Indianapolis was an emotional experience and my first time in the U.S. Next weekend we head to Brno, where I have never raced before, and it looks like a hybrid between Mugello, Misano and Jerez, so I think I can do well."Caretta Technology Honda rider Alexis Masbou says:
"I was happy with the result in Indianapolis, even though the setting of the bike was not perfect and the engine suffered a lot. Now we will have a new engine for Brno, a track I like very much and we hope to have better results."