MOTOGP CONTINUES EUROPEAN ROAD TRIP IN FRANCE
DRIVE M7 Aspar riders ready to tackle fifth round of the season at Le Mans
After a hard-earned week off the MotoGP World Championship keeps rolling this week as the paddock moves from Jerez in Spain to the Le Mans circuit in France for the fifth round of the season. The opening four rounds have been dominated by Marc Marquez and this circuit is well suited to the Honda on paper, thanks to its hard braking and acceleration zones, although it has traditionally been favourable to Yamaha and Jorge Lorenzo, race winners for the past three seasons. At the moment, however, it is impossible to bet against the all-conquering Márquez.
DRIVE M7 Aspar riders Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama travel to France aiming to continue their positive progression during the early stages of the season after improving their performance levels at Termas de Río Hondo and Jerez. Hayden was hampered at the Spanish round by an inflammation of the right wrist that required surgery during the winter. Even though it didn’t stop him from racing at Jerez it did rule him out of the post-race test but a period of rest and recovery has done him good and he is fit to ride again this weekend. Aoyama was able to complete the test and the DRIVE M7 Aspar Team rider is looking forward to putting some of the solutions found into practice this weekend.
Nicky Hayden: “Le Mans has never been a great track for me personally and truthfully it’s not my favourite, but when we were kids my dad never let us say we don’t like a track so I never say it! What I can say is that there are some fun corners and great fans. Unfortunately for us at the moment there is a lot of acceleration coming out of slow corners, which is not the strongest point of our bike. Anyway, I need to understand how much my wrist irritation from Jerez has improved and try to keep the progress we made in Spain rolling, go have some fun and go fast!”
Hiroshi Aoyama: “We have been in good form over the first four races of the season and we have improved the set-up of our bike a lot, especially during the test following the race at Jerez. We found some things that I am looking forward to trying out at Le Mans. It will be a difficult circuit for us with so many straights and slow corners where you need to get the bike stopped. Anyway, we go there full of motivation and determined to maintain our good form from Jerez. Le Mans has a very rich history in motorsport and I love the atmosphere there. Hopefully we can have a good weekend in France and find some consistency in the first part of the race, which is what we lacked in Spain. That’s the objective.”