From a press release issued by Honda: HONDA RIDERS SET TO SHINE IN FLOODLIT ENCOUNTER The months of hard off-season work and the ceaseless rounds of testing are now over. The real business of Grand Prix racing begins, and this time the opening race will be held under 5.4 million watts of floodlighting the first ever night-time Grand Prix. And it’s Honda star Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) who will be emerging from the dark days of injury to get his third season of MotoGP underway. Dani injured his right hand testing at Sepang in Malaysia. The injury is still not totally healed, but durable Dani is fit enough to be in contention when qualifying begins here on Friday. He will emerge from pitlane with his erstwhile team-mate Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) from the same garage they have shared for the past two seasons. The duo will once again be making firm challenges for the biggest prize in motorcycle sport. The Honda factory has elected to start this Grand Prix with the conventional valve spring version of its potent 800cc V4 power unit. Meanwhile development work aimed at making the power delivery of the engine with pneumatically-operated valves more rider-friendly continues apace. Hayden has been well on the pace during testing, topping the timesheets at Sepang in late January and again at Jerez in Spain last month. The American former World Champion has a big season ahead of him after struggling in the first half of 2007 before emerging late season as a rostrum force once more. He shows all the signs of a man who feels he has it all to prove again in 2008 after lifting the MotoGP title in 2006. His rivals know that this level of intent from a rider with the Kentucky Kid’s aggression and pace signals racing of the highest intensity to come over 18 rounds in eight months. Honda’s new draft of premier class riders are also showing they can cut it at the highest level. Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) has been flying in testing and the former Kawasaki rider has taken to the Honda well, posting the third quickest time in floodlit testing here at Losail. Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) has moved up from the 250cc class as runner-up overall in both 2006 and 2007, and the Italian ace has quickly adapted to the physical demands of grappling with bigger, more powerful machinery. Sixth fastest at the end of last weekend’s test session, he feels confident and ‘Dovi’ has never been a rider to talk up his chances without backing them up on track. The San Carlo Honda Gresini Team riders Alex de Angelis (another top pick from the 250cc class) and the hugely experienced Shinya Nakano have both been riding on the limit in the run-up to this race. Both men crashed here in testing. But the San Marinese 250cc graduate and the Japanese master will both be fit enough to race despite more than a few bruises. The Losail International circuit lies ten kilometres from Qatar’s capital of Doha and the 5.38km track is now a known quantity for most riders across the classes. Built in 2004, it features more turns than any other track on the calendar, six lefts and ten right-handers in all. Nor is there a chicane of any description. This puts a high premium on machine agility and it also brings tyre wear issues into sharp focus. Artificial grass placed along the track to allay riders’ fears of sand being blown onto the surface is only partially successful. Under windy conditions this worsens and with the added unknown of racing at night, all riders are approaching this race with a certain amount of caution. The 1068m straight, 20m longer even than that of Catalunya, is approached at relatively slow speed, making brisk acceleration through the gears vital. Power and top speed are among the primary requirements and also stable braking at the end of that 320km/h blast flat out in top gear. Corner speed and machine agility are also at a premium and with a much cooler track temperature at night, tyre choice will be critical in terms of finding rubber that can cope with a track surface varying in temperature and thus grip as it drops from its usual 45-degree daytime level in the cool night air. Dani Pedrosa, who finished third here in 2007, said: “This certainly isn’t my favourite circuit. Most of the time it’s quite windy at Losail, which blows sand from around the circuit on to the track, making it dirty. The tarmac itself is grippy but when it’s dusty there’s not much grip. And it’s always dusty off the racing line, so if you get offline you lose a lot of time because you have to be very careful not to fall. Fortunately it’s not bumpy and the safety is good. Technically, this circuit requires very precise bike set-up, with good agility and good straight-line speed; these two factors are very important at Losail. Riding at night here is a new experience, but for my liking there is too much humidity as night falls, and you really notice it on the track.” His Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden said: “I’m just really happy to be going racing again because that’s what it’s all about. Qatar is going to be an interesting weekend running at night. The actual track is really good except you don’t have 100,000 people going wild for their favourite rider and it’s just missing that bit of history. I think running it at night is going to make a difference to that. It’s going to be real interesting how the tyres work at night. I think it’s gonna be cool and I’m really looking forward to it because I enjoyed riding at night in the tests. I’ve spent a lot of time under lights doing dirt track at home, but until the tests here, the only time I’d ridden a roadracer in the dark was practising for the Suzuka Eight Hours in 2003 and that was really cool.” LCR Honda man Randy De Puniet said: “The winter tests have been very productive for me and the whole team. The Honda/Michelin package is working well and my results were quite positive especially my pace on race tyres. I’m looking forward to racing in Qatar because I prefer these new conditions when the temperature is cooler and I don’t have any special problems with the shadows on the track. We found a good base set-up and didn’t change many things during the last test session so we focused on tyre testing with good results. I feel confident for the first race of the season and it’ll be a great show with the new lightning system.” JiR Team Scot Honda runner Andrea Dovizioso said: “If I look to the results of the winter tests I’m very confident about this weekend’s race in Qatar. I didn’t expect to find myself with such a good feeling on the bike, nor to be able to achieve the results I have in the tests. The team works very well together and our technical package is competitive. If we need to fine-tune the aspects of the machine we’ve shown our capability to do so is very high. I think our tests have shown our real value on track and this is why I think we can look forward this weekend to be up there battling with the top riders. I’m excited to be starting this World Championship and for this first race in the dark I have to say we are ready.” Alex de Angelis said: “I’m happy with the race pace we found in the opening part of this final test session. The only problem is that from 10 o’clock onwards it starts to get really cold and humid. The track conditions change a lot and I crashed. Luckily I wasn’t badly hurt I’ve got some pain in my right forearm but generally I’m OK. I’m optimistic for the race although we’ll have to pay attention over the first few laps because it takes a while for the tyres to get up to the right temperature.” His San Carlo Honda Gresini team-mate Shinya Nakano said: “I’ve worked a lot on refining my settings for the race. We had a good base setting until the conditions changed and when I tried to push a little harder to improve the lap time I crashed on the humid track. That interrupted the race simulation we were carrying out and actually made for an early end to the session. I didn’t pick up any serious injuries and a few days’ rest will be enough to prepare for the race.” In the 250cc class Yuki Takahashi (JiR Team Scot Honda RS250RW) takes the Honda factory fight to the Aprilia and KTM hordes along with the rapidly improving Ratthapark Wilairot (Stop And Go Racing Honda RS250RW) in his second full season of Grands Prix. Takahashi said: “For the first race there are a lot of questions to be answered. Many of my former rivals are now in MotoGP and some 125cc riders have joined the 250 class, so it’s difficult to say who will be fast and who can lead races. Also we’re going to race at night and this is a situation completely new to everybody. Despite testing in these conditions the race will probably be a little unpredictable. I will be giving 100% so I can start in the best condition possible to back up the excellent job the team has done so far.” Wilairot said: “The race simulation was very positive. I have a good feeling with the RSW and I’m getting used to the track. I believe we’re headed in the right direction and we have to keep working like that. This test was very important to get ready for the first race of the season and also in a night condition, as I’ve never experienced that before.” Honda’s sole representative in the 125cc class is French rookie Louis Rossi riding for the FFM Honda outfit on a Honda RS125R. The 18-year-old from Le Mans in France will have a tough baptism on an unfamiliar track under floodlights, but he’s keen to take up the challenge. Rossi said: “This will be tough, but the team is experienced and will help me get to grips with the work I need to do to be as competitive as possible here. I’m here to learn but I’m a racer and I’ll be fighting for every 100th of a second in qualifying and every place in the race.”