Repsol Honda Team RC212V riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden go into MotoGP’s tropical race aiming for the top step of the podium. Both men have scored top-three finishes at the last two races, making them optimistic of strong results at Sepang. Hayden scored his second podium of the year with a rousing ride to third place in the Australian Grand Prix on October 5, while Pedrosa took a hard-fought third in last month’s Japanese Grand Prix. Hayden has hit a rich vein of form recently, his Phillip Island podium following a brave ride to second place at the hurricane-hit Indianapolis GP. Pedrosa’s Motegi finish was his first podium with his new technical package a pneumatic-valve RC212V and Bridgestone tyres. Hayden has been using the impressively quick pneumatic-valve RC212V engine since June’s British GP and continues to ride with Michelin tyres. Sepang is the penultimate race of the MotoGP season and arguably the most demanding race of the year for riders, bikes and tyres. High temperatures and sweltering humidity are the norm at this tropical venue, which is MotoGP’s busiest off-season testing circuit. Sepang is popular for testing because of consistent year-round temperatures and a varied layout which tests all aspects of machine performance to the limit. It is the longest and one of the fastest tracks in MotoGP, with a challenging variety of medium-speed and high-speed corners. Pedrosa has won twice at Sepang the 2003 Malaysian 125 GP and the 2004 250 GP and scored one MotoGP podium at the track, taking third place in 2006. Hayden has scored four fourths at the circuit, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Sepang hosted its first GP in 1999, taking over from Malaysia’s original GP venue Shah Alam, which joined the calendar in 1991. Dani Pedrosa “We were not so lucky at Phillip Island, sometimes you have some bad luck in racing, but already we are looking forward to Malaysia where I am determined to make up for the mistake I made in the last race. I had a very good feeling at Sepang in pre-season testing before the crash. I had a good pace from the beginning and I hope to start this weekend in the best way with the new bike and tyres. I’ve got still some pain from the accident, my left knee is a bit swollen, but I hope I will soon be in perfect condition. The circuit of Sepang is an interesting track. It is quite long with a good combination of right-handers and left-handers, many of which are quite long. The motorcycle needs tyres of a tough compound for this race, and tyres play a very important role in the heat. Both the front and rear tyres are of a similar compound because they both have to work very hard: there is a lot of heavy braking at Sepang, which asks a lot of the front end, and there is a lot of hard acceleration, which affects the rear. The track has a lot of different corners and sections, so the riding style you use is quite varied. It is a physically demanding track because of the heat. Compared with many of the other places we go to, you don’t get such a big crowd there and so this race doesn’t usually have a lot of atmosphere.” Nicky Hayden “The last few races have been a lot of fun and made me pretty happy. We need more, but it’s nice to be competitive. I owe a big thanks to everyone involved Honda, Michelin and all the guys from Yamano [Repsol Honda team manager] all the way through, because it would have been real easy to fold up on me, but the easy way is just not our style. Just need to keep it rolling! No one can say they don’t know Sepang, it seems like we spend half the year there. Last year we did three tests and a race there, so the nearby airport hotel is like your second home. We spend about four weeks a year there, so you walk in and it’s scary because the people know you! Sepang is a great track. I like it, our bike has been running good, and you need a bike that’s running fast there. The track has got a little bit of everything: some hard braking, some pretty quick corners like turns five and six. I think that’s why we test there so much, you can’t fake it there because both the bike and the rider have got to be able to do everything pretty good.”