Dani Pedrosa heads East for decisive final races

This weekend The Repsol Honda Team return to full strength with Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner for the Japanese Grand Prix, the 15th round of the MotoGP Championship.

Dani, who has won three of the last four races, currently lies 2nd in the Championship and is chasing down Lorenzo. He will be looking to repeat his 2011 victory in Motegi and reduce the 33 point gap with just 4 races of 2012 remaining. Dani has won at Motegi in all three classes, 125cc (2002), 250cc (2004) and MotoGP (2011).

Teammate Casey, who has missed the last three Grands Prix due to an injury sustained in qualifying for the Indianapolis Grand Prix in August, will be anxious to get back on track and asses the movement in his right ankle. Casey had surgery on the 30th August and has been recovering at home in Australia with his target to be fit for the final races of 2012. With 186 points Casey is mathematically out of the Championship race but he will want to finish on a high before he retires from the sport.

Dani Pedrosa
“Motegi is a race I always look forward to. It’s the most important weekend for Honda and I really enjoy the circuit. We have now the most demanding period of races ahead, but we will keep taking things step by step, thinking race by race. I love Motegi, it’s a track with strong braking and strong acceleration. You must work very hard for the anti-wheelie, handling with the throttle, braking stability and good drive out of the corners. We had a good race there last year and we will work hard with the team to be as competitive as possible”.

Source: Repsol Honda Team