MOTOGP ROUND 6, ASSEN, SATURDAY 26th JUNE

Solid work from Arai’s MotoGP riders

DANI PEDROSA, REPSOL HONDA
Race Position: Second                    Championship Position: Second

“I’M SURPRISED BY THIS RESULT”
Dani Pedrosa rode to second place in the 80th edition of the Dutch TT and duly climbed back into second place in the MotoGP World Championship. It was a good result for the Spaniard after a difficult weekend during which he and his crew spent much of the time chasing the right set-up for the Assen circuit.

In the morning warm-up session, his team found some answers to the handling issues they had been tackling which allowed Pedrosa’s RC212V to set the fastest lap of the race and to take the battle to today’s winner Jorge Lorenzo in the 26-lap encounter. From a lowly seventh on the grid, Pedrosa threaded his way up to third into the first corner behind Ben Spies and Lorenzo in front. On lap three he passed Spies and set off in pursuit of Lorenzo, quickly catching his fellow countryman and threatening to take the lead from him. 

However, Lorenzo was able to pull away in the second half of the race and in turn Pedrosa stretched the gap to Casey Stoner behind him to secure a comfortable second place, just 2.935s back from the winner.

“Well first of all I have to say I’m surprised by this result because, I tell you, in practice we had a lot of problems and we tried so many things that didn’t work, so I wasn’t expecting to get second today or to have this pace. For the warm-up we found something which gave us a better lap time and my rhythm improved a lot, which gave us the chance to fight in the race. I knew with the soft rear Bridgestone tyre that I would have more of an advantage in the first part of the race and so I pushed really hard from the start to catch up. But then I began losing a little bit of time in the first section of the circuit and lap-by-lap we lost touch. Anyway, this is a good result for us and I’d like to say thanks to my team because they never gave up. I’m back into second in the World Championship but actually I’m more pleased with second in this race. Now we go straight to Catalunya for my home GP and I hope we can have a good race there too.”

NICKY HAYDEN, MARLBORO DUCATI
Race Position: Seventh                   Championship Position: Fourth

“AS ALWAYS I’M TRYING TO LOOK AT THE POSITIVES”
Nicky Hayden got away well from the second row of the grid but was blocked by traffic into turn one and lost several positions. He managed to pass Colin Edwards and Marco Simoncelli within a handful of laps but by then had lost contact with the front group and was unable to reproduce his pace from practice.

“Seventh place isn’t exactly the best but as always I’m trying to look at the positives: after making a good start on Thursday we had a difficult session on Friday morning with a breakdown and a crash, when we also wrecked a set of tyres, and that obviously made things hard for us. While the rest made progress with their set-up we lost ground. I got a decent start but got held up by De Puniet and was passed by a lot of riders. I managed to pass Colin and Simoncelli but lost time and even though I tried to close the gap the front end tucked a couple of times and I had to settle for seventh. It’s a shame because it’s our worst result of the year apart from the crash at Mugello but we go racing again next week and we’ll be trying to get back to the front.”

COLIN EDWARDS, MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3
Race Position: Eighth                      Championship Position: Tenth

“I RODE MY HEART OUT”
Colin Edwards extended his impressive record of scoring points in all six races so far this season with a solid ride to eighth place, while adapting to a new front-end geometry set-up over the course of the weekend. Edwards and his team gained crucial information that they all hope will help close the gap to the leading group in future races.

“I can’t be disappointed or upset with eighth place and wonder why I didn’t get a better result when I rode my heart out. There was nothing else I could have done today but I know what we can improve. We’ve been experimenting with some different front-end settings and we’ve made it better, but I just lose a bit of time when I release the brakes and can’t turn the bike how I want. And losing that little bit everywhere adds up by the end of the lap and makes it difficult. I know I rode harder than last year when I finished fourth, but I’m eighth. I guess that proves that those guys at the front are running an unbelievable pace. I was behind Nicky for a long time but I could never get close enough to put a pass on him. Looking at Ben it can be better and once again, I can’t praise him enough.”

HIROSHI AOYAMA, INTERWETTEN HONDA
Race Position: DNS              Championship Position: Fifteenth

The Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team announced that as a quick solution for Assen and Barcelona Kousuke Akiyoshi, Honda’s test rider, would replace Hiroshi Aoyama. Aoyama had a nasty crash in Silverstone in which he fractured his T12 vertebra and the 28 year-old Japanese will be out for some months due to this injury. The team is currently looking for a suitable replacement after Catalunya, until Aoyama is fully recovered. Akiyoshi finished fifteenth (and last) at Assen.

Daniel M. Epp, Interwetten Team Manager:
“It really is a pity that Hiro had this nasty crash at Silverstone and that he injured himself so badly. Especially now because his learning process was really good and he was consistently getting better; we hope he will have a quick recovery, and that he will be back with us as strong as he was before as soon as possible. In the meantime we are looking for a replacement.”

The next MotoGP round is at Catalunya, on Sunday the 4th July.

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