Repsol Honda Team heads to Sachsenring with Championship tied With no time to take a breath and just five days after the challenging race at Assen, the Repsol Honda Team follows the Championship to Sachsenring for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Germany, the eighth round of the season. After the double podium in the Netherlands, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa will aim to maintain this momentum and take another step forward in the World Championship, where Casey is now equal on points at the top of the standings with Lorenzo (140), while Dani (in third position with 121 points) has seen the gap to the leaders reduced to 19 points. The Sachsenring track, the second shortest on the calendar after Laguna Seca, is a much slower circuit than Silverstone and Assen, but again it will be very demanding on tyres: 13 turns -10 left and only 3 to the right – means a lot of stress on the tyres and the track layout requires a very accurate set up of the bikes. Casey has four podium finishes in Germany, including a victory in 2008, while for Dani Sachsenring has been like a talisman circuit in the past, with five victories (three in MotoGP, including the last two years) and six podiums in total. CASEY STONER World Championship Position: 2nd with 140 points “I hope we can go to Sachsenring and get another good result especially after our tough, but rewarding weekend in Assen. We were quite competitive there last year, but in the long corners we are struggling a little more with our bike at the moment so we’re going to need to work hard on Friday and Saturday, try to find more grip from the edge of the tyre and also see if we can reduce the front chatter. It’s a very interesting track, maybe not one of the greatest on the circuit but has one of the best corners coming down the hill which is a little scary with spending so much time on the left before switching to the right side of the tyre. It’s a good atmosphere there though with all the spectators so close to the track, it feels like a Coliseum ! There’s always an interesting race there as we saw last year so we’ll see what this weekend has in store”. DANI PEDROSA World Championship Position: 3rd with 121 points “Sachsenring has been a successful track for us in the past, we’ve got some very good results there and it’s a circuit where I always enjoy racing. Every race counts and we have to keep working hard and our time will come. We had a very good weekend in Assen and we have to repeat it in Germany; hopefully with the first win of 2012 that we are chasing so much. Sachsenring is a short track where the performance of the tyres will again play a big part, because you are leaning on the left a long time and the fastest corner is to the right. We need to set up the bike the best we can and give our best on Sunday”.