MotoGP heads to Italy for the second time this season
DRIVE M7 Aspar riders aim to continue progress at San Marino GP
The Grand Prix of San Marino takes place this weekend at Misano, a special circuit that was renamed in honour of local hero Marco Simoncelli following his tragic death in 2011. At 4.226km the Italian track is short but demanding, with some hard braking and a mixture of fast and slow sections. Even though Marc Márquez, with eleven wins, has been the dominant force this season he has had to fight hard for his victories – none more so than at Silverstone in the last round when he was pushed all the way by Jorge Lorenzo. Marquez looks certain to retain his title but his rivals will look to maintain their challenge for as long as possible, ensuring an exciting finish to the season.
After a difficult weekend at Silverstone, a circuit he admits is not amongst his favourites, Hiroshi Aoyama is looking forward to heading to more favourable territory this weekend. The DRIVE M7 Aspar Team rider always enjoys riding at Misano and he is hoping that some positive set-up work during practice can propel him back into the top ten on Sunday afternoon, having not managed it since Indianapolis. Even though it was his home race DRIVE M7 Aspar Team stand-in rider Leon Camier also struggled to enjoy Silverstone and he has a different plan for what will be his fourth Grand Prix with the team in place of the recovering Nicky Hayden.
Hiroshi Aoyama: “The last race didn’t go to plan, I don’t like Silverstone much and we struggled to find a good set-up there. I am sure this weekend will be different because I really like Misano and my feeling is usually very good there. It is a tight track and quite unique, you need a good set-up because there are some sections where you can lose a lot of time. Hopefully we can enjoy the weekend at Misano and I am sure the team will do a great job a usual. As usual my goal will be to fight for a top ten finish.”
Leon Camier: “I rode at Misano for three years in World Superbikes and it is quite a strange track. It is demanding, with some hard braking, some tight and slow corners, and we are going to have to work very hard to adapt the set-up of the bike. We struggled to get on the pace at Silverstone, maybe because we went the wrong way with the set-up at the start of the weekend and never managed to recover. We have a very clear plan for Misano, we know which direction we need to go in for me to continue learning about this category and this bike. I’ll try to complete as many laps as I can and hopefully we can show our best on Sunday.”