MotoGP Valencia 2015: Honda, Marquez e Pedrosa verso l'ultima fatica

Marc Marquez e Dani Pedrosa, con tutto il team Honda HRC, provano a mettersi alle spalle le ultime settimane, ma non sarà facile. La posta in palio è una vittoria davanti al loro pubblico, Yamaha permettendo.

Ad alimentare la già non certo distesa atmosfera che aleggia intorno all'ultima gara della stagione MotoGP, che andrà in scena a Valencia il prossimo week-end (questi gli orari tv), ci hanno pensato i team ufficiali di Honda e Yamaha, che hanno dato il via ad un botta e risposta circa il presunto calcio che Rossi avrebbe dato a Marquez nella gara di Sepang.

Così, con la tensione che si taglia con la motosega, ci si avvicina all'ultimo capitolo di una storia di cui, per quanto possa essere fervida l'immaginazione, forse nessuno ne saprà prevedere il finale prima dello sventolare della bandiera a scacchi.

In un contesto surreale, vista l'operazione di "blindatura" decisa dalla Dorna, che ha annullato la tradizionale conferenza stampa dei piloti del giovedì pomeriggio, indicendo invece una riunione a porte chiuse con gli stessi ed i rispettivi team manager, la squadra ufficiale Honda si prepara alla gara.

Quella che sarà l'ultima, non solo del mondiale 2015, ma anche delle quattro gare spagnole per Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa, Repsol (il main sponsor della squadra), ma anche per Dorna ed il suo patron Ezpeleta, è carica di attese e speranze, con il pilota di Cervera che sul tracciato valenciano ha vinto due volte , mentre il fantino di Sabadell ha trionfato in altre sei occasioni. Di seguito i commenti dei due piloti. 

Marc Marquez: “E' stata una settimana difficile, dopo quanto avvenuto a Sepang, ma mi sono impegnato a fondo per mettermi alle spalle il tutto, concentrandomi sull'allenamento e pensando all'ultima gara della stagione. Vogliamo finire bene, pertanto lavoreremo duro dal venerdì sul setup della moto, in modo da assicurarci le migliori chance per la gara. Ho raccolto risultati altalenanti, su questo tracciato, ma mi piace correre davanti ai fan di casa. Spero che quanto successo la scorsa settimana possano essere messi alle spalle per concentrarsi sulla gara”.

Dani Pedrosa: “Sono state belle, ma stancanti settimane, le ultime. Abbiamo lavorato duro, vincendo due gare, cosa che non sarebbe sembrata immaginabile in Qatar, ad inizio stagione. Adesso arriviamo a Valencia per l'ultimo gran premio del 2015 e sarebbe fantastico finire con un'altra vittoria. Qui ho fatto molte belle gare, in passato e spero di essere in grado di dare spettacolo davanti ai tifosi spagnoli, lottando per la vittoria”.

MotoGP Valencia: Iannone: ‘Vitally important’ to beat Pedrosa

“For me it's vitally important to finish fourth in the championship, so I will focus my race on Dani and try and finish ahead of him”- Andrea Iannone.

MotoGP Valencia: Iannone: ‘Vitally important’ to beat Pedrosa

While all eyes will be focussed on the MotoGP title fight between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo at Valencia on Sunday, the closest points battle in the top ten is between Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone.

The Repsol Honda rider is holding fourth place by just two points ahead of Iannone, with the Ducati rider planning to 'focus his race' on beating the Spaniard.

“The Valencia track is a favourable one for us: last year with the GP14 I led for the first ten laps and remained in the leading positions for the next 5, so I hope to be able to fight with the top guys again this year,” Iannone said.

“I think that the GP15 has a good potential at Valencia and I will try to make up the two-point gap separating me from Pedrosa. For me it's vitally important to finish fourth in the championship, so I will focus my race on Dani and try and finish ahead of him.”

By contrast, Iannone's team-mate Andrea Dovizioso needs to overcome an 18-point difference if he is to snatch sixth place from Bradley Smith.

“We are going to Valencia with the firm intention of getting a good result, even though it's not going to be easy because for the last few races my feeling with the GP15 hasn't been the same as it was in the early part of the season,” said Dovizioso, who took four podiums from the first five races but made only one rostrum visit since. “In any case I will give my all, as always, because I want to finish this season in the best possible way.”

Valencia will also see the return of Ducati Test Team rider Michele Pirro, who will race the Desmosedici GP15 for the third time this season as a wild-card.

“I am pleased to take part in the final race of the MotoGP season at Valencia, because for me it is very important to be able to confirm the progress of the GP15 and the form I showed at Misano, unfortunately only in practice,” Pirro said. “I want to make amends for the misfortune I had in the San Marino GP and I am confident I can have a good weekend.” 

Forearm injury to keep Dani Pedrosa out indefinitely

Honda MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa is set to take time away from the track to try and find a solution for a recurring pain in his right forearm.

Madrid: Honda MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa is set to take time away from the track to try and find a solution for a recurring pain in his right forearm.

The Spaniard finished sixth in the first grand prix of the new season in Qatar on Sunday.

However, Pedrosa, who had an operation on the same injury after last season`s Spanish Grand Prix, said he could no longer continue riding until he found a cure for the problem. 

"It is evident that I cannot continue riding in this way because I cannot give my best. I have suffered this situation for a while and it is very difficult to continue competing like this," he said.

"The team know the situation and it has reached the point where I have to look for a solution to the problem once more. I don`t have the answers right now to how it will go, but I need to try and find the way to fix it."

Pedrosa added that he had sought the opinions of numerous doctors in the off-season in an attempt to ease the pain he suffered during last season when he finished fourth in the world championship.

"Since last year I have had a lot of problems in my right forearm and have suffered a lot in silence.

"I have tried everything to fix it. As you know last year I had an operation in the middle of the season which didn`t help men at all.

"The situation last season was very difficult. I had a lot of problems in every race.

"At the end of the year I travelled around the world meeting different doctors to find a solution for my arm. Almost none of them recommended an operation, so I followed their advice trying to improve the arm with some techniques other than an operation."

Despite never winning the world championship, Pedrosa has had a very successful MotoGP career, winning 26 races and finishing runner-up in the championship race three times.

The second grand prix of the campaign takes place in Austin, Texas on April 12. 

"I can't continue racing this way"

Dani Pedrosa dropped a bombshell at the conclusion of the Qatar Grand Prix, announcing that he is putting his career on hold indefinitely until his forearm problems have been completely resolved.

Pedrosa lifted the lid on his injury ordeal: "It is kind of a long story: trying to be quick, basically in this race I had an arm pump issue, which has been there for a whole year. Last year I struggled in every single race, I couldn't really perform well and my results haven't been that good due to this fact. I have been trying all of this time to fix it and improve; it wasn't easy [because] I couldn't really get any good answers".

"I went through one surgery but it wasn't successful. I tried not to talk about it in public; obviously this wasn't easy, but Honda always knew about it. This winter I was travelling all around the world trying to get different opinions from several doctors. Fortunately all the answers recommended me not to have a surgery because of the risk, and I tried to follow this advice, and work a lot in a non-aggressive way".

"Now that this race is over and I can see that I cannot perform as I know I can, I have to decide to find a way to solve this problem. I cannot continue racing and performing this way, so my plan now is to try to fix my arm".

The Spaniard is in the dark about how long he will be out for: "The doctors are in the same point, they don't know what to do. I will try to get rid of this problem. The team knows about it. Not so many answers for the moment, everything is quite uncertain, obviously, but I hope to have news soon"

MotoGP British Grand Prix 2015: Valentino Rossi storms to victory and retakes the lead in the Championship standings

Traditional English weather of grey clouds and spitting rain didn’t stop the British making their way to the Northamptonshire circuit as over 73,000 people roared as nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi started from fourth on the grid to then lead from the second lap to the chequered flag of a wet race.

Going into the twelfth round of the championship, Rossi and teammate Jorge Lorenzo led the championship tied on 211 points. After completing the warm-up lap of what was declared a dry race, every rider returned to the pits immediately to change to their wet-tyred bike so incurred a 30-minute delay and the grid was reset.

Although defending world champion Marc Marquez had won pole position yesterday, it was Lorenzo who charged from the front row of the grid to the first corner, leading the first lap with Marquez on his heels. Rossi maintained fourth place but swiftly climbed to second within the first lap before lunging at the Spaniard on the second lap and stealing the lead.

With the rain coming down harder, Lorenzo quickly lost second place to Marquez and the front pair soon pulled away with a seven second gap to the chasing pack. British rider Cal Crutchlow got a great start from eighth place on his LCR Honda, overtaking Bradley Smith and Dani Pedrosa to eventually take third place from Lorenzo.

The Yamaha factory rider immediately hit back as LCR teammate and rookie Jack Miller, who had a magnificent start to climb up to fifth place, went into the corner too deep sending him straight into Crutchlow’s Honda RC213v and finishing his race there. Crutchlow attempted to carry on, entering the pits briefly and returning to the track only to crash a second time and retire to the pits for good.

With Pramac rider Yonny Hernandez being the first to retire by crashing in the first corner, teammate Danilo Petrucci made his way from 18th position on the grid through the pack to battle with the front runners on his satellite Ducati.

Finding himself incredibly in fourth place after the two LCR Honda’s vacated, Petrucci and compatriot Andrea Dovizioso simultaneously swooped on Movistar Yamaha rider Lorenzo on lap seven to then battle for the last podium position. Repsol Honda’s Pedrosa dropped Lorenzo further back by taking fifth place but the Movistar Yamaha rider soon found the pace to re-pass his compatriot.

On lap twelve, second-place Marquez - barely 0.1 seconds behind Rossi - highsided at turn 1, waving his arms in the air clearly having no idea what caused it, but promoted the two Italians behind to secure podium positions. Lorenzo passed Pedrosa for fourth place and began the chase for the two Ducati’s closing the gap to 1.619 secs but unable to challenge for the last spot and valuable championship points, having to settle with fourth place.

With Crutchlow out of the race, Scott Redding and Bradley Smith were left to fight for the British contingent, crossing the line in fifth and sixth places respectively, with fifth being the best result for Redding this season.

In Moto2 Johann Zarco took victory while defending world champion Tito Rabat and fellow Spaniard Alex Rins fought for the other two positions on the podium, with Rins taking second 2.2 seconds ahead. Englishman Sam Lowes fell from the front row of the grid to ninth position but battled with Tomas Luthi and Anthony West to cross the line in seventh place.

In Moto3, leading the championship standings by 45 points going into the British round, Wiltshire born Danny Kent led from the early in the race, taking the win and extending his lead to 50 points.

The next race will take place at Rossi’s home round of Misano in San Marino on Sunday 12 September. BT Sport 2 exclusively broadcasts all the action.

Lorenzo and Márquez promise another great battle

After the fantastic display which he put on in Brno, Jorge Lorenzo proved that he is still on top form. And so is Marc Marquéz, who ended up just 0.033 seconds slower than Lorenzo after dominating the first free practice session at Silverstone. The pair are promising to stage another battle, with Valentino Rossi off the pace.

It is clearly a circuit which both of them like, and where they have contested first place in a head-to-head in the last two years. This year is shaping up to be the same, unless Rossi can make an impact. The Italian is some way down the pecking order, in amongst the rest of the field. This time he was tenth fastest, almost a second slower than Lorenzo.

The surprise of the day came from Bradley Smith, who finished third fastest ahead of Dani Pedrosa. The Englishman recently celebrated his contract renewal with Tech3 and nearly managed the best time of the day. Pedrosa, meanwhile, came in fourth just two tenths slower than the leader.

Márquez, pole and record at Silverstone

Marc Márquezhad everyone eating his dust at Silverstone. The Spaniard beat the best lap record twice on the English circuit, easily claiming pole position for tomorrow's race.

Already on his first attempt the rider looked dangerous. Redding kept close, but the Catalan was so on form that there was little that could be done to even get near him. He crossed the line with a time of 2:00.564, beating Dani Pedrosa's previous record of 2:00.691. Lorenzo came second, but Pedrosa later managed to out-race him and steal second position off him. As the day wore on, Rossi dropped down to fifth.

In the second attempt, once again Redding kept close to Márquez. This did not faze the Spaniard in the slightest, as he opened up the throttle even more, clocking a time of 2:00.234 and breaking the record yet again. Lorenzo pulled out all the stops and reclaimed his second place, while Pedrosa did well in finishing third. At the last minute, Rossi reacted and will be starting in fourth place. Pol Espargaró, after overtaking his English teammate Smith, came in fifth. A disappointing day for Ducati, passable for Suzuki.