Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V), chastened by what was a disastrous Grand Prix in Brno two weeks ago, is ready to take the fight to his title rivals once more. It looks as if Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) is out of sight in the World Championship points table with 237 points to Ducati rider Casey Stoner’s 187 and Dani’s 172. But with six rounds and 150 points remaining nothing can be taken for granted.
The horrendous Czech Republic race, which seriously derailed Dani’s title hopes, has now been consigned to the history books and with Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) now rejoining the Repsol Team after being sidelined with a foot injury, Honda’s main men are back at full strength for the final clashes of the year.
This Grand Prix was a thorough disaster for Dani and Nicky in 2007. Both were involved in a turn one, lap one pile-up which ruined their races and neither man will want a repeat of that scenario this time round. Nor will Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) who was also involved.
After a testing session following on from the Brno race, Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) has proved that he is still a force to be reckoned with as he continues to perform strongly while working on RC212V chassis developments.
His fourth place in the Czech Republic showed that the Japanese rider’s ambition of finishing in the top six at the remaining six races of the year is by no means too tall an order and as a local rider (Shinya lives a mere 10km from the track) he will be especially fired up this weekend.
Nakano’s team-mate Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) is another entirely local hopeful. The San Marinese man has shown massive potential since his elevation to the premier class from the 250cc category and he would like nothing better than to snatch a podium here this weekend.
Another genuine local with high hopes this weekend is Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) who is holding fifth place overall in the points standings in what is turning out to be a highly impressive rookie season. Dovi lies only ten points behind Yamaha rookie Jorge Lorenzo and there is never any lack of desire on Dovzioso’s part when it comes to getting the better of Lorenzo here or anywhere.
The Misano track was excised from the roster of Grand Prix circuits after the terrible accident that befell Wayne Rainey there in ’93. The American rider suffered spinal injuries in a crash that ended his stellar career. Now with massive changes made to this Rimini venue – including a switch from anti-clockwise to clockwise circulation – Misano is once more a Grand Prix fixture.
The three long lefts that characterized the ‘old’ Misano are now three right-hand turns of diminishing speed, whereas before the lefts led onto the back straight and into another left turn. With tyre and set-up data from last year’s race this Grand Prix will be marginally less tricky than in 2007. But in the light of recent tyre troubles for riders – perhaps not by much.
Now at 4.226km, after an extra 250m was added to the pitlane exit to improve safety, the previous lap records will be irrelevant and riders will be vying to get their names on the books as the quickest participants at this modified venue.
Dani said: “I’m hoping that we can have a better weekend at Misano, though I had bad luck there last year, another rider knocked me off at the very first corner. The Misano circuit is quite fast but it feels tight and narrow. The grip level is OK and last year we used medium-compound tyres because it was quite hot. The track was also very bumpy last year, which was probably its worst feature. From a set-up point of view the most important thing at Misano is having good Braking power and good stability when accelerating out of the corners. It’s the kind of track that requires you to ride aggressively.”
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