From a press release issued by Honda: After a forceful ride in Qatar earlier this month Spanish star Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) is set to make the first of three races in Spain his signal that he is more than ready for the challenge of the 2008 World Championship. But the way the World Championship is shaping up so far, he won’t be the only frontline Spanish rider to be gunning for the big prize on Sunday. Dani will relish the rivalry with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) this weekend. And now he is nearing full fitness again, after injuring his throttle hand in a crash while testing in Malaysia, he is itching for action. Pedrosa won here on a 250cc machine here in 2005 and he has also finished on the podium here for the last three years. His team-mate Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) also scored a podium finish here in 2006 and the Repsol duo are sure to put up a determined display here for one of Honda’s long-term sponsors. The Honda factory has won here in the premier class 15 times most recently with Sete Gibernau in 2004. But another Spaniard, former World Champion Alex Criville triumphed here in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Mick Doohan took the spoils in 1996. With 17 races still to go, this the second of them, the first in Europe is a vital pointer to what might unfold as the MotoGP series gathers the inexorable momentum that has put it firmly on the map as one of the biggest attractions in motorsport. Last year a crowd of nearly a quarter of a million people (244,600 to be precise) witnessed some of the best racing of the season with the top ten riders on the grid covered by just 0.325 seconds. It will be tight again during qualifying. The circuit presents a challenge on two fronts; rider rhythm is vital with front tyre and rear edge grip at a premium. Laid out among natural contours with eight right and five left-hand turns, Jerez was built in 1986 and hosted its first Grand Prix the following year. It has never been off the Grand Prix calendar since a measure of the quality of racing it provides. Jerez makes demands in all areas of machine set-up with short, medium and long straights, uphill and downhill braking areas, and two second-gear hairpins. But the biggest test is whether a rider can make a series of consistent, flowing laps in race conditions when the ideal lines through turns on this 11m wide circuit may be occupied by rivals. Bikes have to be stable to cope with bumps on the entries to key turns. Under hard braking, the undulations into turn one at the end of the start/finish straight can pose problems and another tight right-hander at the end of the back straight is a challenge too especially as these are recognised ‘passing places’. The longest straight is only 600m making a high top speed less of a requirement than at other tracks. Jerez also boasts one of the most spectacular run-ins to the finish line two 100mph right turns, with rear wheels spinning-up, and then desperate braking into the final tight left where many a race has been won and lost, often amid fierce controversy. Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) hot from his fighting fourth place in Qatar will be aiming to show he has the quality to ride another race right at the front while Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) is likely to be among the top men too. Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) crashed at Losail and the San Marinese rider will hope for better here Similarly Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) knows he can go better than he did in the first Grand Prix of the season. Dani said: “I’ve been training since Qatar to get back to full strength and I hope my right hand should be 100 per cent at Jerez. It’s a very important race for me and I really enjoy it. What I like most about racing at Jerez is the huge crowd and the great atmosphere. The track is quite safe, though it could be improved in a few areas. There are a few bumps too, though not too many, and the tarmac offers good grip. Top speed doesn’t matter too much at Jerez. But you need a very well balanced chassis that allows you to brake hard and tackle both fast and slow corners. It’s a circuit that requires quite an aggressive riding style.” Nicky Hayden said: “Qatar wasn’t a great weekend for us but we’ll be working hard to move on from that at Jerez. Our bike should work good at Jerez and in the past the Michelin tyres have worked really good there. I think it’s a cool track and it’s not a top-speed track. I like tracks where you’ve got to put sections together, and Jerez all flows together pretty good. The atmosphere is pretty cool you come into the stadium section [the Nieto and Peluqui turns] on Sunday morning and it’s wild. Nowadays you can design a racetrack on the computer, you can do whatever you want make that, generate this, design that you can use every trick in the book, but if the place don’t have that atmosphere, money can’t buy that. It’s a good track and one of my favourites.” Andrea Dovizioso said: “Jerez is not my favourite, but with my MotoGP bike I did very well there in testing as I was riding consistently and I did some very good times. I’m confident that we can do very well and now we have done the first race I’ve learnt a lot of things that you can only learn while racing with other riders on the track at the same time. It will be a very hard weekend, because the other riders want to give their maximum performance more so than at the World Championship tests. I think we have a good technical base set-up but during practice we have to work on the braking of the bike and also the acceleration in low the RPM regimes from around 2000-4000rpm.” Randy de Puniet said: “I like this track even though it’s not my favourite. It’s very technical but the straights are not very long. I know this track very well and we had a very good test in the winter. I can’t say we’ll be able to repeat the good performance we had in the tests. I expected the same during the race in Qatar some weeks ago because the tests were pretty positive but the race was totally different. However my pace on race tyres during the winter tests was consistent and fast but the conditions were a bit different at that time. We’ll focus our work on the bike setting trying to get a better position on the grid on qualifiers.” Alex de Angelis said: “We’ll be able to work calmly during practice at Jerez to try and prepare as well as possible for the race, because during the IRTA test we were able to gather a lot of data. We also start the weekend knowing how the bike and tyres will perform, so I’m sure we’ll be able to work well, as we did in Qatar. As far as my crash in the first Grand Prix is concerned, it was obviously a bit disappointing but it would have been much worse if we hadn’t shown we can go fast. In Qatar, during the test and the weekend of the race, I was always just outside the top five and that’s important. The crash is behind me now.” His team-mate Shinya Nakano said: “In a way you could say that my 2008 season starts properly at the Grand Prix of Spain. Racing at night in Qatar was enjoyable but it was a special Grand Prix. Thirteenth place wasn’t the result we were expecting but Jerez will be another story: I like the circuit because it’s so technical and in the past I have performed well in qualifying and in the races. My objective is to finish in the top six. Since Qatar I’ve spent my first days in Italy in an apartment the team have made available to me it’s close to the team, the Misano circuit and the beach. I understand even more now that Gresini Racing really is a big family.” 250cc Honda’s Yuki Takahashi (Humangest Racing Honda RS250RW) now feels he has the speed to compete again at the sharp end after suffering an injury-prone 2007. He is confident and as a fan of the track layout could well be one of the main men here. He said: “The first race was very important for me, because I was looking for confirmation about my physical condition I’m very satisfied of the result as Doha is a very difficult circuit for us. Jerez is very good for the Honda’s characteristics and also I like the track a lot. In the corners I’m very strong but perhaps not so strong on the straight. In the last few rights, I’m very quick and that shows that it’s important to get a good setting for Jerez’s combination of corners.” Ratthapark Wilairot (Stop And Go Racing RS250RW) will be aiming to score points again and said: “Taking 13th in Qatar was a good result, it proved that we’re doing a good job efforts always get rewarded. However, we saw in Losail that the Championship is very competitive and it will be tough to score points every weekend. My goal will always be to finish among the first ten, but to make it possible, we have to be realistic and never lower our guard. It will be the second time I ride at the Jerez circuit this year (after testing). This track is much more complicated than Losail and we’ll have to work hard from the very first practice session.” 125cc Rookie Louis Rossi (FFM Racing Honda RS125R) arrives here for the first time and the young Frenchman knows this race is about learning and gaining track craft. There are few better places to do it then here.