May 31, 2017
Honda Riders Look Forward to Magical Mugello
The return to the scenic Mugello circuit for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix marks the completion of the first third of the 18-race 2017 MotoGP season and offers Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) another chance to consolidate their impressive recent progress.
Both men lie in the top four of the championship standings, with Pedrosa taking over second place in the points chase two Sundays ago, after finishing third at the French GP at Le Mans. It was the 31-year-old former 125 and 250 World Champion’s third podium finish in a row, including victory at the preceding Spanish GP at Jerez.
Marquez has also claimed one win this season, but the reigning World Champion tumbled out of the French GP, and now lies a close fourth overall.
The experienced Pedrosa has a fine record at the fast and spectacular Mugello circuit, which loops around two sides of a valley in the Apennine foothills. In 2003 the Spaniard rode his Honda RS125 to second place in the 125cc Italian Grand Prix, less than a second behind winner Lucio Cecchinello, now owner of the LCR Honda MotoGP team. His first Mugello win came two years later, in the 250cc class. Since moving to the factory Repsol Honda MotoGP team in 2006, Pedrosa has finished on the Mugello podium on five occasions, highlighted by first place in 2010.
The lightest rider on the grid, Pedrosa’s strong 2017 results have come despite some challenges in generating heat and grip from the Michelin control tires in cool conditions; thus he will relish the opportunity of a hot day in Tuscany to make his task easier.
Defending champion Marquez has had an up-and-down start to his 2017 season. The 24-year-old scored a superb victory in April’s Grand Prix of the Americas at COTA, Texas, and took second place to his team-mate at Jerez, but crashed out of the Argentine and French GP. In both cases he fell after losing the front, so he has high hopes that a revised front tire available at Mugello will be better suited to his aggressive braking and corner-entry style.
The former 125cc, Moto2 and thrice MotoGP champion took part in a special one-day test at Catalunya in the week after Le Mans, and reported positive feelings about the stiffer-construction tire after setting fastest time at the revised circuit.
Marquez has enjoyed victory in all three classes at Mugello, having taken the first of his 56 GP wins there in 2010 in the 125 class, going on to take the championship. He won in Moto2 the next year and added a MotoGP win in 2014, one of an astonishing run of ten consecutive first places that cemented his second successive MotoGP crown.
Whoever wins on Sunday is certain to dedicate the result to the memory of 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden, who succumbed to injuries on May 22nd, following a cycling accident in Italy on Wednesday May 17th. The popular American won three GPs and one world title riding Honda’s 990cc RC211V, and was contesting this year’s World Superbikes series with the Red Bull Honda team.
Honda’s independent-team riders look forward to a strong showing at Mugello after some promising recent results.
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda RC213V) has scored a podium at the circuit, finishing third in 2013, and has taken one top-three finish already this year, in a strong start to his third season riding with Honda. The 31-year-old Briton has claimed two front-row starts in 2017, and has yet to finish lower than fifth.
Two more of Honda’s awesomely powerful V4 machines run in independent colors, with last year’s Dutch TT winner Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) holding his own in the top ten during his strongest MotoGP season yet. The 22-year-old Australian has finished in the top ten everywhere except at Jerez, where another rider knocked him off, and has been in the “senior” Q2 qualifying session at the last three races.
Team-mate Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) has also improved his scoring in his second MotoGP season. The former Moto2 champion has been in the points at every race but one.
In the Honda-powered Moto2 class, a fourth win in five races has extended the lead of Italian Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex) to a handsome 20 points. The 22-year-old Italian has two top-ten finishes at Mugello, including eighth last year.
His closest rival is 30-year-old former 125 World Champion Thomas Luthi (CarXpert Interwetten Kalex). The Swiss veteran has yet to win a race this year, but has only been off the podium once. He was fourth here last year.
The only other rider to win this year is Marc’s younger brother Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex). Aged 21, the former Moto3 World Champion is in his third year in Moto2, and this year has added more consistency to his speed. He is third overall.
All Moto2 riders are supplied with identical race-tuned Honda CBR600 engines to ensure close and reliable racing, giving all riders an equal chance. Interestingly, the current top five are all from different countries, with Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo KTM) a close fourth, only three points adrift of Marquez.
Another six points further back is one of the young stars of the season, class rookie Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Sky Racing Team VR46 Kalex). The 20-year-old Italian was second in the last two races.
Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex), Swiss ace Dominique Aegerter (Kiefer Racing Suter), Spaniard Xavi Vierge (Tech 3 Racing Tech 3) and Italians Luca Marini (Forward Team Kalex) and Simone Corsi (Speed Up Speed Up) complete the top ten.
The Moto2 class will crown a new Mugello winner this weekend, because all five previous winners of the Italian Moto2 round – Marc Marquez, Tito Rabat, Andrea Iannone, Scott Redding and Johann Zarco – now race in MotoGP.
In Moto3, riders of the NSF250RW machine have taken a stranglehold on the first six championship positions, after taking a clean sweep of every top-three podium so far.
Top scorer Joan Mir (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) has won three out of five races, including the last round at Le Mans. But the French race brought misfortune for COTA winner Romano Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers Honda NSF250RW), now lagging by 34 points after crashing at Le Mans. Third-placed Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda NSF250RW) was second in France to put him only two points behind Fenati and four ahead of Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Racing Moto3 Honda NSF250RW), who also fell at Le Mans.
John McPhee (British Team Honda NSF250RW) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Gresini Racing Moto3 Honda NSF250RW) are close in fifth and sixth; while Italy’s Enea Bastianini (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda NSF250RW) is tenth overall.
Mugello hosted its first GP on May 16th, 1976, although the venue wasn’t a full-time fixture on the MotoGP calendar until 1991. The circuit is hugely challenging for riders and engineers, with plenty of fast corners, high-speed direction changes and changes of elevation. The track rises and falls through a picturesque valley, with many off-camber corner entries, and features one of MotoGP’s longest straights, with a challenging left-hand kink towards the end. Here riders lean to the left with the front wheel in the air at well over 320km/h (200mph), landing just in time to brake for the first real corner. Last year the fastest bike at Mugello was a whisker short of 355 km/h (220.5 mph).
The next race, the Catalan Grand Prix, follows next Sunday and marks MotoGP’s second 2017 visit to Spain.
Honda MotoGP rider quotes
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team:
“The Mugello weekend will be very emotional. It’s tough to lose a friend, especially one who became very close during three seasons as team-mates and over the years afterwards. I remember how much Nicky pushed, how hard he tried, never giving up while chasing his dream to win the MotoGP title. I also remember when I was suffering with arm-pump in 2015 and I announced I was going to stop with racing for a while after the first GP. He immediately came to see me to understand what was going on and it was him who actually recommended the doctor I had the surgery with. He was such a nice person and I’m so sad and sorry especially for his family. We will think of him and feel him close in our hearts when we go on track in Mugello, as we did at the Montmelo test last week. In Catalunya we lapped on the revised layout and worked on the front Michelin tire we will have to use from now on. We learned and we made some adjustments to the set-up over the day of testing and in the end we could manage and get a better feeling. We confirmed that our base set-up is good. We finished the test in a positive way”.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team:
“We were preparing to leave for Montmeló for a one-day test last week when we received the terrible news of Nicky’s passing. He was a great rider and an incredible person. I remember once, when I was a kid of 15 at the very beginning of my career in the world championship and he was the MotoGP World Champion: We took part in an event together and my English was very poor, so he tried to speak Spanish and he was very funny and easy-going, treating me as if I was his little brother. And then we shared the garage last year in Australia and had a great party together after the race. Like his amazing family, he had a great passion for motorcycling, and he will always be in our hearts. As for the test, we worked on bike set-up and we especially focused on trying the Michelin front tire that we’ll use starting with the next race in Mugello. With this tire I experienced less movement on the front, and the feeling was more consistent throughout the lap. It remains to understand how it will go for an entire race, but anyway, with my riding style I generally feel better with it and I’m confident that in Mugello it will help me a bit more.”
Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda:
“My aim this weekend is to finish in the top six again. So far this season we have shown that we have the pace to get strong results. Honda, the team and I are all working well together, so I’m looking forward to trying again at Mugello. I scored a podium at Mugello in 2013, even though it’s probably the most difficult circuit for me. The best thing about the weekend is the atmosphere and the warmth of the Italian fans. They make it an incredible event.”
Jack Miller, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS:
“As soon as I got home from Le Mans I had a scan on the hand and the knee [both were hurt when Miller fell heavily in FP4] just to make sure there was nothing broken and since then I’ve been working with the physiotherapist to reduce the swelling in both. I’ve been doing a lot of cycling this week, but I also managed to get out on the supermotard and had no problems, so it’s looking good for the weekend ahead. Mugello is one of those special circuits on the calendar and like a lot of other riders I really enjoy racing there. With the long straights it’s a bit of a horsepower track, but it’s also one that demands a lot of confidence in the front, and we’ve made big steps in this area since the start of the season. This means we should be able to make up in the corners and in the fast changes of direction what we lose down the straights, so I’m confident another top-ten finish is a realistic goal for us this weekend.”
Tito Rabat, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS:
“Mugello promises be an interesting weekend for me after the result in Le Mans and the two days of testing in Barcelona. We know where we need to improve; in the race our results are steadily getting better, but it is in practice and qualifying where we need to focus our attention now, especially when conditions are changeable as they were at Le Mans. At the moment it’s taking me too long to adapt to mixed conditions and find my rhythm and this is something we need to improve. Mugello is a special circuit, very fast, very technical and very demanding of both bikes and riders. Physically it’s tough, but you never really feel tired because the track is just so much fun to race on. It’s one of my favorite circuits and one where I’ve had some success in the past, so this weekend can’t come soon enough for me.”
Honda Moto2 rider quotes
Franco Morbidelli, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS:
“It would be wrong to say that Mugello is just another race, because it’s far from that. For the first time this season we are racing in Italy in front of my home crowd and you can feel them pushing you, especially when you’re on track. What is true though is that our approach to this race will be the same as for every other race, as we know this works and it’s won us a lot of races this season. The approach will be important this weekend as Mugello is a fast track, with many fast changes of direction; it’s physically demanding and also very technical in places. We head there in good shape, which is important because this is a track at which I haven’t been particularly fast in the past. This is something I hope to change this weekend, so that we come away with a good result and more points on Sunday.”
Thomas Luthi, CarXpert Interwetten:
“We worked a lot during the Le Mans test. It was a very positive day, but I’m sure that it will be difficult to adapt what we found at Le Mans for Mugello, because the Italian track is completely different. But I like it, I’m happy to get there and start riding. It’s one of the most beautiful tracks in the championship and it’s also the beginning of a very intensive month, June, with four races in five weeks. It’s a very crucial time in the championship.”
Alex Marquez, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS:
“Le Mans isn’t a track that really suits my riding style, so I was happy to come away from there with a fourth-place finish and enough points to move me up to third in the championship. Mugello though, with its fast corners and flowing nature, is a track I really enjoy, so I’m really looking forward to the weekend ahead. The injury to my foot is much improved; it’s still not fully healed but I’m confident that it won’t cause me any problems on the bike and that I will be able to push for a good result and, hopefully, the podium.”
Honda Moto3 rider quotes
Joan Mir, Leopard Racing:
“For me, the podium at Mugello would be great, though of course I will try to win. So far we have won three races out of five, but we cannot fall asleep! There is a long season ahead and we need to keep making the maximum-possible score every weekend. It’s always tough at Mugello, with big groups of riders fighting all the way to the finish line. Last year I was only 1.5 seconds behind the winner, but in seventh place!”
Romano Fenati, Marinelli Rivacold Snipers:
“The Mugello weekend is an event full of magic. Everything starts slowly and the hills are crowded with people having fun. In my opinion the track is the best ever! We’ll see what happens, for sure I will do my best.”
Aron Canet, Estrella Galicia 0,0:
“Qualifying and the race at Mugello are always a little chaotic, because there’s always large groups of many riders forming around the track; so we will have to work on finding a good pace riding alone. In last year’s race we fought for the podium, but on the final lap I suffered a highside and couldn’t complete the race. This year we hope to improve our result at a track that is very fast. It’s also a peculiar track, because of all the uphill and downhill sections.”
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