Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso are all highly motivated as they head to Le Mans for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France this weekend.

The 2011 MotoGP World Championship resumes this weekend for Round 4 at Le Mans in France. After his first win of the 2011 season in Portugal, Dani Pedrosa has now cut the gap to World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo down to just four points. Team-mate Casey Stoner – third in Portugal – is currently third in the Championship with Andrea Dovizioso in sixth place.

Pedrosa has enjoyed wins in 125cc (2003) and 250cc (2004, 2005) at Le Mans, but victory in the MotoGP class eludes him, with his best result being third in both 2006 and 2009. He has also achieved five pole positions at this circuit. Stoner has had mixed fortunes at Le Mans, with only one podium finish in 2007 he will be looking for a good result here on his RC212V. With a win in 125cc in 2004 and a third place finish in 2010, Dovizioso will be hoping for a podium finish at Le Mans also.

Dani Pedrosa:

"It's been the first week in a long time in which I have felt calm and confident, especially after the race we had in Portugal. It was a great release for me to feel good on the bike after the operation and makes me see things differently. After the race and Monday's test I was very tired and sore. I spent three days resting to relax the muscles and then I continued with the physiotherapy and gently working with my trainer. Now, I look forward to getting back on the bike. Le Mans will be, as always, a difficult and busy weekend. I've done well overall in this circuit, I have quite a lot of confidence there, but I am yet to win in MotoGP and I would like to. It's similar to Estoril, a stop and go track where Yamaha has been also very strong in the past. We need to take a big profit from the practice sessions to prepare a bike with good stability, traction and acceleration and be prepared for any track condition because of the weather. In this track you also need to be very focused because the race is long and it's very important to be consistent and not make any mistakes.”

Casey Stoner:

"In Estoril I was very happy to retain third and keep some valuable points for the Championship. We've always had some reasonable results in Le Mans but never really quite good enough. The practice sessions will be important to get the set-up of the bike just right, and I feel the Honda should work well there so I'm looking forward to it.”

Andrea Dovizioso:

“After the improvements made in the post GP test in Estoril, we arrive in Le Mans more competitive. We will use the new clutch we tested in Portugal and take advantage of the set-up solutions tested there. Le Mans is a slow track and has a lot of changes of direction, unfortunately the circuit has lost part of its fascination after changes made in the past years. I have always scored good results on this track, last year we had a very good race finishing on the podium. We head to Le Mans determined to repeat it. Our target is the podium and to achieve it we need to work well from the first day.”