Repsol Honda duo aiming for podium in Le Mans - Printable Version +- TT Website Forum (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums) +-- Forum: Isle of Man TT Website (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=3) +--- Forum: Other Race Meetings - MotoGP, WSB & BSB, Irish Roads etc - (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=13) +--- Thread: Repsol Honda duo aiming for podium in Le Mans (/showthread.php?tid=13379)

Repsol Honda duo aiming for podium in Le Mans - Malcolm - 16-05-2012 Repsol Honda Team riders Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa head to this weekend’s Monster Energy Grand Prix de France looking to repeat their feat of a double podium at each round this season. Stoner, who clinched the win in Estoril last week and his 18th successive podium, won in Le Mans in 2011, and is hoping to once again visit the top step after two solid victories in a row. Pedrosa celebrated his 100th career podium in Portugal and will return to Le Mans looking for a much-improved race over last year, when he broke his collarbone in a collision with the late Marco Simoncelli. He will however be buoyed by having set the lap record and fastest lap of the race shortly before the incident. The French circuit, located 200km south-west of Paris, is a tight track, dominated by first gear corners, late braking and hard acceleration. Casey Stoner "The past two tracks have not historically been my best but I've managed wins at both of them so I'm hoping we can go to Le Mans and be competitive again. I've had some mixed results there in the past, the track layout is unique, it's a little stop-start with a lot of braking and I think this year both the Honda's and Yamaha's will be competitive there. It was disappointing that the weather in Estoril on Monday prevented us from testing, we need to work on the chatter issue we have on the bike so let's hope we have some dry sessions from day one in Le Mans so we can get out on track and work on it." Dani Pedrosa "Le Mans is a hard circuit, quite similar to Estoril, a stop and go track where you need to prepare a bike with good stability, traction and acceleration. In the past I felt comfortable riding there, I had good results in 125cc and 250cc, but not really perfect in MotoGP, so I have something small inside me I want to achieve. Last year I did the fastest race lap, but I couldn't keep the pace before the crash, so I want to do better this time. We've had three good races so far, I'm riding well, but I missed something in all of them, especially on the first laps, where I've been stronger in the past. I need to put everything together and if we get better starts, we will start winning races." .