2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

Repsol Honda Preview

Round 10 of the riveting 2006 MotoGP season sees a confident Repsol Honda Team arriving at the Sachsenring circuit for this weekend’s German Grand Prix. With riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa at the head of the world championship and both stars boasting a strong past record at this track, the factory Honda team is looking to further extend its advantage in Sunday’s 30-lap race.

Hayden, whose brilliant start to the year sees him leading the standings by 26 points, is eagerly anticipating the second phase of the season which features races at many of his favourite circuits. The 24-year-old American star took pole position at Sachsenring last year and led the two-part race, before finally crossing the line in a close third place just 0.885s behind the winner. With a win already under his belt this year, a strong showing here will be the perfect launch pad as Hayden heads to his home Grand Prix which takes place one week after Sachsenring.

His team-mate, reigning 250cc World Champion Dani Pedrosa, comes to Germany aiming to continue the stunning form which took him to a dominant win in the last round at Donington Park. In a dazzling debut season, Pedrosa has already racked up three pole positions and two victories from the nine races so far, placing him second in the world championship. He’s consistently shown that having no previous MotoGP experience at a circuit is no obstacle to running at the front and, having won the previous two 250cc Grands Prix at the German circuit, the 20-year-old Spaniard has form on his side.

Last year’s meeting at the 3.671km (2.280 miles) circuit was an eventful one with only the 250cc race running the full distance. In front of a huge 216,000-strong crowd the MotoGP race was stopped after five laps when John Hopkins crashed, with the restart being run over 25-laps. And the 125cc race was declared a result after 20 laps when Manuel Poggiali’s get-off also brought out the red flag. Hayden and Pedrosa will be looking to steer clear of such mishaps in Sunday’s race, which begins at the earlier than usual time of 12.30 CET.

Nicky Hayden – World Championship Position: 1st – 153 points
“We’ve had a short break and I’m really looking forward to getting to Germany – it’s a track I quite like. In the first section it’s pretty well follow-the-leader and you’ve just got to be patient and get through there, but the last part of the track I really like. The 5th gear drop-away is really good and it’s a pretty sweet feeling when you get that one right. For the bike set-up it’s important to have good edge grip at this circuit and that’s something we’ve struggled with a little bit this year, but nevertheless I’m looking forward to a good weekend. There’s a lot of racing still to go this year and there’s quite a few races coming up at tracks I like, so I’m definitely feeling ready for the second half of the season.”

Dani Pedrosa – World Championship Position: 2nd – 127 points
“As always this year my first job is to learn how to ride the RCV at this track. Sachsenring has some really slow sections and really fast sections so I don’t know how it will be to ride this bike. For sure the first part will be very tight because it was very tight on a 250 so I’m waiting to see how a MotoGP bike will feel through here. My results at this track have been pretty good in previous years but of course in MotoGP it will be a different challenge and I’m taking nothing for granted. At Donington we had the opportunity to ride a good race and get a good result – and we took the opportunity. That’s what we’ll be working towards this weekend as well. If everything goes well perhaps we can fight at the front, otherwise we’ll go for the best result we can, as always.”