REPSOL HONDA TEAM CONFIDENT FOR ARAGON DEBUT For the second time this season the Repsol Honda Team visits a new addition to the calendar – this time the debutant Aragon circuit which hosts round thirteen of the MotoGP World Championship on Sunday. It will be the third visit of the year to Spain following the Grands Prix at Jerez and Barcelona earlier in the year, and local Repsol Honda hero Dani Pedrosa couldn’t be arriving in better shape as he looks to score a hat-trick of successive victories after wins at the last two races in Indianapolis and San Marino. On the other side of the factory Honda team garage Andrea Dovizioso is relishing the challenge of tackling the new venue and will be looking to open his Aragon account with a podium finish to bolster his current position in third place in the World Championship. At two-thirds of the way through the season, Pedrosa lies in a clear second place in the title standings and looks like the only rider capable of mounting a challenge to runaway series leader Jorge Lorenzo. Though the gap is a daunting 63 points, Pedrosa has already cut the lead back by 14 points by winning the last two races, and the 24-year-old rider from Barcelona knows that all he can do is continue with his impressive run of form and rely on Lorenzo dropping more points in the championship’s six remaining races. Though the task looks formidable, a maximum of 150 points is still on offer for each rider and Pedrosa and his crew will certainly not give up while the mathematical possibility of success remains. Another win on home soil for Pedrosa is the target this weekend. Dovizioso sampled the Aragon track on a Honda CBR1000RR road bike last Wednesday – as Pedrosa did back in July – and he’ll be determined that the knowledge gained during his sighting laps will help him get off to a flying start on Friday. The 24-year-old Italian finished in a competitive fourth place at his home Grand Prix at Misano two weeks ago and is hoping for a return to the podium this weekend to cement his third place in the championship standings. Dovizioso is predicting an exciting race at the Spanish track thanks to the layout offering an interesting challenge in terms of machine set-up, along with multiple overtaking opportunities. The timetable for track action this weekend sees the reintroduction of Friday morning practice for the first time since 2008. This means there will once again be two practice sessions on Friday, thus giving the teams a welcome extra opportunity for exploring set-up options and subsequently analysing data in preparation for the race on Sunday. All four practice and qualifying sessions have been reduced to 45-minutes in duration so that the overall track time available remains equal to the replaced three one-hour sessions. The Aragon circuit is a brand new venue created by renowned track designer Hermann Tilke near the town of Alcaniz, 100km south east of Zaragoza in Spain. The state-of-the-art facility opened in 2009 with various track layouts designed for different racing disciplines. The FIM-approved motorcycle circuit runs anti clockwise and is 5.078km (3.155 miles) in length, which is slightly shorter than the FIA car racing circuit. Both Repsol Honda riders believe the track’s combination of significant elevation changes, blind entry corners, and several sections which require heavy braking while leaned over will present an exciting challenge as they set-up their Honda RC212Vs for Sunday’s 23-lap race. First practice for the A-Style Grand Prix of Aragon takes place at 10.05 on Friday (GMT +2 hours). DANI PEDROSA World Championship Position 2nd 208 points “I’m looking forward to arriving at MotorLand Aragon and trying the new track on the RC212V. I did some laps in July with a Honda 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 t o 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.” ANDREA DOVIZIOSO World Championship Position 3rd 139 points “I always enjoy the challenge of racing on a new track where no one has prior knowledge and we can all start from zero, so I’m especially looking forward to this race weekend. 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. It was actually the first time for me riding on a track with a street bike, and I enjoyed it. 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 determin ed 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.”