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HONDA RACING INFORMATION
2012 FIM ROAD RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND PRIX ROUND 15 OCTOBER 12,13,14, 2012 MOTEGI, JAPAN PREVIEW MOTOGP, MOTO2, MOTO3
HONDA TEAM BACK TOGETHER FOR HOME GRAND PRIX
The Honda team will be back at full strength for the Japanese Grand Prix at Twin Ring Motegi, Honda's home track, with Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner rejoining team-mate and championship contender Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) for the first of the three flyaway races.
Pedrosa arrives in Japan having equaled his career mark of four MotoGP wins and having set a new personal MotoGP record of podiums with 12. With four races to go, the Spaniard is certain to break both marks, and he will have to if he is to continue his quest for the
2012 MotoGP World Championship.Having won in Aragon in the European getaway round, Pedrosa closed the gap on points leader Jorge Lorenzo to 33.
Motegi has been a welcoming track for Pedrosa, a track that he likes and looks forward to. Pedrosa won in 2011 with a 7.3s margin of victory. That win completed the triple-crown for Pedrosa; he has now won in all three categories he has raced at Motegi, 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP. Last year's win came after he had missed the 2010 race when he broke his collarbone in practice through no fault of his own. Prior to his injury, he had been third in both 2008 and 2009.
When Stoner rolls his Repsol Honda RC213V onto the Twin Ring Motegi circuit on Friday morning, it will have been 55 days since he suffered significant damage to his right ankle in a qualifying crash for the Indianapolis Grand Prix. Stoner missed the final three races prior to the flyaways-Brno, Misano, and Aragon-while recovering at home in Australia. He has spent the time with his young family and keeping up with the MotoGP World Championship. Now the two-time MotoGP World Champion is ready to return.
Stoner returns at a track where he finished third to team-mate Pedrosa last year on his march to the 2011 MotoGP World Championship.
Stoner also won the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix following a battle with then Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso, who fought Stoner until the two-thirds mark in the race when the Australian was able to make a clean break. Stoner also finished second at Motegi in 2008 and was on the podium in both the 250cc and 125cc classes.San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista is currently tied for sixth in the MotoGP World Championship with the possibility of finishing fifth. The Spaniard has been getting stronger as the season has progressed, with his first podium coming two races ago in Misano, a race which was preceded and followed by sixth place finishes.
Already he has scored nearly double the points he did last year and should double his previous best from 2010 if he maintains his consistency.That battle starts at Motegi, where before last year's non-finish he was seventh in his rookie MotoGP season of 2010. Bautista finished his 250cc career with a win at Motegi in 2009, one year after finishing second. He was also second in his final 125cc season in Japan.
Bautista is the only rider in MotoGP using Showa suspension, which adds pressure to his task of finding the proper set-up on a circuit that taxes the forks and shocks with hard braking and equally hard acceleration.
Twin Ring Motegi is one of the favourites of Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP RC213V), who not only likes the track, but also the people of Japan. The young German continues his rookie of the year season at a track where he won the second grand prix of his career. That was in 2008, when he won a thrilling 125cc race. Since then, he has been fourth twice, including in 2011, his Moto2 World Championship-winning year. The 22-year-old is just behind Bautista in the championship and well ahead of the second best rookie.
The Motegi race gives Bradl another opportunity to earn his first MotoGP podium, a finish that is certain to come. He was denied a possible podium in Misano by a front tyre that gradually lost air.
And in Aragon he was third on the fourth lap when he fell.Michele Pirro (San Carlo Honda Gresini FTR) continued his roll of points-paying finishes in Aragon, where he scored points for the third race in a row after a frustrating series of non-finishes. Pirro might have finished higher up the order had conditions allowed for more dry track time, conditions which prevented him from finding a better set-up. Still, he is encouraged by the progress he and his team have made on the Honda CBR1000RR-powered CRT machine heading to Motegi, where he first raced in 2005 before returning last year in the Moto2 class.
Before he returns to his home in Spain for the final race of the 2012 season in Valencia, Marc Marquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol-Suter) could be the Moto2 World Champion. The 19-year-old leads the Moto2 standings by 48 points, a lead he amassed by winning seven times and finishing on the podium in four other races. If Marquez can increase that lead to 50 following the Malaysian Grand Prix, the race following Motegi, the title will be his.
Marquez's record in Motegi is impressive. In 2010, his final 125cc season, he won the first of four races in a row in Japan. He finished second to Andrea Iannone (Speed Master-Speed Up) in his Motegi Moto2 debut last season.
Pol Espargaro (Pons 40 HP Tuenti-Kalex) has an uphill battle to dislodge Marquez from the top spot, though he is up for the challenge. Espargaro won his third Moto2 race of the season in Aragon, taking five points from Marquez's lead as he continues his late season surge: Espargaro has not qualified worse than second in the past five races and has been on the podium in all five.
Of the two, Espargaro has far more experience at Motegi, first racing there in 2006. His best finish came in 2009 when he finished third in the 125cc race, following that with a fourth in 2010. Espargaro hit a patch of bad luck in last year's race, finishing the first lap in last place before working his way up to 21st.
Andrea Iannone (Speed Master-Speed Up) will be making his last Moto2 appearance in Japan before moving to the MotoGP class in 2013. The Italian currently sits third in the championship, though the 32-point gap to Espargaro will be difficult to overcome. Instead he has to worry about a rear guard attack from Thomas Luthi (Interwetten-Paddock-Suter).
Iannone is the only rider in the top five to score points in every race, though two of those finishes were well outside the top ten, which allowed the two Spaniards to pull away in the championship. He is also the rider who won last year's race by two seconds over Marquez with Luthi third. Iannone also won from the pole position in the 2009 125cc grand prix.
Maverick Vinales (Blusens Avintia-FTR Honda) has five wins in the
Moto3 class, more than any other rider. But the last win came in the race prior to the summer break, after which he has not been able to match his early season performances. That's left him third in the championship, a position he may improve on, though a title run is unlikely.Vinales lost a chance to close the gap on the championship leader in Aragon, where a technical issue prevented him from starting the race.
Now he is back in action in Japan, where in his only previous visit he finished fourth in last year's 125cc race.Romano Fenati (Team Italia FMI FTR Honda) retired before half distance in Aragon with a minor technical issue one race after finishing on the podium in his home grand prix in Misano. Motegi is another track where he has never raced, though he can call on the experience of team technical coordinator Roberto Locatelli, the former racer who won the 125cc grand prix at Motegi in 2000 when it was the Pacific Grand Prix.
Estrella Galicia 0,0-Suter Honda rider Alex Rins is another grand prix rookie visiting the Far East for the first time. Having never seen Twin Ring Motegi, Rins has been learning the circuit through a videogame. The track being the home of Honda, Rins is hopeful of engine upgrades for his Honda-powered Suter.
The previous two Japanese GPs were postponed for differing reasons.
The 2010 race had to be moved from the spring to the fall by a volcanic eruption in Iceland that interrupted air travel. Last year's race was postponed from April to October by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan. Those two postponements returned the race to its more traditional fall date, where it began life as the Pacific Grand Prix from 2000 through 2003, after which it replaced the Suzuka Circuit as the venue for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Motegi ran in the fall every year until 2009, when it was moved to the second race of the year. Now it's back at the start of the Japan-Malaysia-Australia flyaways triple-header.Twin Ring Motegi weaves a world class road course with a world class egg-shaped oval that once hosted open wheel races. The name Twin Ring is the marriage of two words, the English "twin" and the German "ring," to denote the two tracks. But the venue offers much more than just the race course. The Honda Collection Hall contains historic motorcycles and cars from Honda's glorious past. There is also a dirt track, rider and driver training facilities, and "Hello Woods," which explores the forests surrounding the race track. The facility hosts numerous championships, everything from the FIM World Trials to Formula Nippon to Super GT to the Honda Eco Mileage Challenge.
Not all of those championship events use the 4.801Km, 14-turn road course that the MotoGP riders tackle. The track mixes stop-start straightaways with lower-gear hairpins that reward stability on the brakes and quick bursts of acceleration, where the Honda RC213V with the seamless shift gearbox has a distinct advantage. The 762m Downhill Straight, from the Hairpin Curve to the 90 Degree Corner, is the fastest stretch, with Stoner topping the speed charts at 295.6Km/h during qualifying in 2011, a speed that should increase with the advent of the 1000cc era. Of the five top speeds, four were Honda-powered.
The wild card in Japan is the weather. History tells us that it will rain at some point during the weekend, giving the better prepared teams an edge when it comes race time.
MotoGP RIDER QUOTES
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa says:
"Motegi is a race I always look forward to. It's the most important weekend for Honda and I really enjoy the circuit. We have now the most demanding period of races ahead, but we will keep taking things step-by-step, thinking race-by-race. I love Motegi, it's a track with strong braking and strong acceleration. You must work very hard for the anti-wheelie, handling with the throttle, braking stability and good drive out of the corners. We had a good race there last year and we will work hard with the team to be as competitive as possible."Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner says:
"It's going to be great to see all my team and get back on my bike in Motegi this weekend. The last six weeks have been pretty tough for me. I've had to sit around and rest my ankle, get some physio and try to occupy my time - thankfully I've had (daughter) Ally around to keep me occupied. I've been watching the races at home. I felt bad for Dani (Pedrosa) in Misano, but these things can happen, as they did for Jorge (Lorenzo) in Assen. The Motegi circuit is very stop-start with a lot of hard braking and accelerating. It's pretty tough on the body and physically quite demanding. The first session on Friday will be crucial to see how my ankle feels in the boot and the degree of movement I have and pressure I can apply."
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista says:
"Aragon was something of a difficult weekend thanks largely to the mixed weather. We were never able to work as we wanted to during practice with the new material that Showa brought for us. In qualifying I struggled for feeling on the front, the bike was moving around a lot on the rear and we were unable to solve our problems in time for the race. I would have liked to have been fighting for a similar result to Misano, but the bike wasn't in the right shape. I managed to make up positions in the race and improve my pace from practice, but no more than that, so we have to focus on the positives, which were championship points and important data for Motegi, where we'll again work hard to fix our set-up problems with the bike. If everything works as we hope then we should be competitive. We have to work a lot on the bike under braking, because this is the most important factor at this circuit. Starting off the flyaway triple-header on the right foot will be fundamental, plus we are racing at Honda's home circuit and I would like to offer them a good result as a way of thanking them for all their support throughout the season. I have been competitive at Motegi in the past, so I hope to repeat that this weekend. Motegi is a circuit where you need a bike that is stable on the brakes and has good traction in corner exit. It should be well suited to our bike, which has great acceleration."LCR Honda MotoGP rider Stefan Bradl says:
"Motegi is one of my favorite race tracks and this GP it's even more special to me because I am a Honda MotoGP racer. I like the warmth of Japanese fans and will do my best to get a good result for my team and the Honda fans. I already cancelled the bad memory of last race in Aragon. We have the potential to fight for a podium finish and now we must stay very concentrated."San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Michele Pirro says:
"Unfortunately, the conditions at Aragon were a disaster and ruined the work we had planned after a fantastic weekend at Misano. It really wasn't easy to try and find a set-up for the bike, but in the end we managed to finish the race and pick up an important point which gives us all renewed belief in the project. It promises to be an important finale to the season and we need to try and close the gap down to the top CRTs. At Motegi we'll try to take another step closer. It's a technical track and even though it is not one of my favourites I will try my maximum alongside the guys in the team to fight to be the best CRT and come away with a good result."Moto2 RIDER QUOTES
Team CaixaCatalunya Repsol-Suter rider Marc Marquez says:
"Motegi is a circuit where we struggled a bit last year, but hopefully this weekend everything will go well. We must be vigilant and prepared for any kind of track conditions, because there is usually at least one session there in the wet. We will try to give
100 percent and see if we can have a good weekend from this round. It is a track based around acceleration and braking, but we are also strong when it comes to braking now."Pons 40 HP Tuenti-Kalex rider Pol Espargaro says:
"Well, we don't know the weather and sometimes there it is not so good. It changes a lot and every year there are one or two days that it rains, and so we have to wait and know what happens with the weather and after that do my best as always. We go there knowing we will be back in Moto2 next year. We are working so good with the Kalex, with the Team Pons. I love the team, the team loves me. We are so complementary, we have to know that that championship is so difficult that we have to work to win my first or try to take my first world championship and do my best next year."Speed Master-Speed Up rider Andrea Iannone says:
"Motegi is a track I like and we'll continue our important work there. We had some grip and chatter problems in Aragon that kept us off the podium. My crew has worked hard on those issues and I'm confident we'll be able to fight for the podium again in Japan. We have to hope the weather is good, so we can get the maximum dry track time to find a good set-up."Moto3 RIDER QUOTES
Blusens Avintia FTR Honda rider Maverick Vinales says:
"Despite what happened at Motorland I am very excited about going to Japan. Obviously the Aragon GP was very hard for us. You know that these things can happen in racing, but when something occurs like a fortnight ago, you are never sufficiently prepared. Before we travel to Motegi, I want to apologise to my team, my sponsors, my fan club and to the fans in general for having lost my composure when my bike stopped on the formation lap. I am not trying to justify my reaction, but one can understand the desperation and anger that I felt when I saw my title chances go up in smoke in an instant. Now is the time to think positive and make the most of the four remaining races. We now go to Motegi, where I took a hard fought fourth place last season after starting last. I like the track, but it isn't an easy one. We will have to push to the maximum because, as we've seen this year, the competition is fierce. Despite this, I can't deny that our intention is to take the win."Team Italia FMI FTR Honda rider Romano Fenati says:
"I'm very motivated ahead of Japan, where I want to redeem myself on a track that I don't know, but is home to Honda, a bike which I'm proud to race with. My technical coordinator (Roberto Locatelli) raced many times at Motegi-he won the race in 2000-and I'm certain his experience will be important at the upcoming tracks."Estrella Galicia 0,0 Suter Honda rider Alex Rins says:
"We go to the Japanese Grand Prix eager to get on the podium. It is a circuit where I have never ridden before and I'm not familiar with it, but I will try to learn it as quickly as possible. I've been preparing for this event for the past few weeks, but before traveling there basically the only reference I have from playing the track on the videogames. This is the home of Honda, so we may be running some small improvements in terms of parts, but even if not we will still try to do our best with this engine."=====================================================================
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