Fresh from victory in Japan, Repsol Honda arrive in Malaysia The Repsol Honda Team have landed in Kuala Lumpur, straight from Japan, to prepare for the sixteenth round of the 2012 MotoGP season. The Malaysian Grand Prix weekend will begin at 16h00 on Thursday afternoon when the entire paddock will assemble at the scene of the tragic accident that took Marco Simoncelli’s life at this Grand Prix last year, to honour the much loved Italian rider. Upbeat after his stunning victory at Motegi, his 20th win in MotoGP and 43rd in his career, Dani Pedrosa will once again be one of the favourites for the victory in Sepang. He hasn’t raced in Malaysia since 2009 -the race was cancelled last year and he missed 2010 due to injury- but the Spaniard has an impressive record at this track with two victories (2003 in 125cc and 2004 in 250cc) and four podiums in MotoGP. He currently lies 28 points off Jorge Lorenzo in the race to the MotoGP title and will be aiming to again finish in front of his countryman to keep his championship hopes alive. Casey Stoner returned from injury in Japan with a positive fifth place after a difficult weekend. His injured right ankle is affecting his riding ability, but he hopes to feel stronger this weekend in Sepang, another very physically demanding track. Every time Casey has stepped onto the podium in Sepang he has celebrated victory: 4 in total (2 in MotoGP, 1 in 250cc and 1 in 125cc). DANI PEDROSA World Championship Standing: 2nd with 282 points “It’s two seasons since I raced in Sepang and I’m looking forward to it now. It’s a track where you have a little bit of everything – it’s hard to ride, it’s hot, there are fast and slow corners, hard braking, long straights”¦ and everybody has references from the tests. Nevertheless, we need to wait to see on Friday what the temperature and track conditions are like to understand how the tyres will work because it’s normally very slippery. I’m really enjoying racing at the moment and I want to continue like this, pushing the maximum from our side without thinking about the others”. CASEY STONER World Championship Standing: 3rd with 197 points “After a disappointing race in Japan, I’m looking forward to going to Malaysia, it’s a track where I’ve had success at in the past. However, this weekend marks the anniversary of Marco’s death so I’m sure it will be a strange feeling when we all get on track. It’s going to be a hot weekend and it’s a physically demanding circuit, my ankle isn’t feeling very good after the race in Japan so I’ll be resting it as much as possible this week before going on track on Friday. The track is a little smoother and more flowing so hopefully I won’t have so many issues as I had in Japan”