Scott Redding heads to round six of the MotoGP™ World Championship at Mugello with the same clear aim as he has had at every Grand Prix so far in 2014 - to finish Sunday’s race as the highest placed Honda RCV1000R rider.

It is a goal that the 21-year-old Briton has achieved twice already this season, once at the opening race in Qatar and again at Le Mans less than two weeks ago. To do it again in Italy would be great timing, given that the Gran Premio d'Italia TIM is a home round for the GO&FUN Honda Gresini team.

In the five races run so far this season, Redding has scored 18 points, just five less than fellow ‘Open’ Honda rider, and former MotoGP World Champion, Nicky Hayden.

Mugello is a track that Redding now counts amongst his favourites as it was the scene of a dominant performance last year, when he took a convincing victory in the Moto2™ race from pole position.

He also has some MotoGP experience at the track having tested a Ducati Desmosedici development bike there in 2012, completing a total of 127 laps over two days.

Regarding the track itself he states,

“I never really used to like it but then I kind of let the track flow with me last year, so I felt quite comfortable. We had a big crash in FP3 last year but then we got pole and won the race, so I felt really confident there. I also tested a MotoGP bike there and also felt quite good.”

On the high top speeds reached on the main straight he admits,

“The scariest part for me about riding a MotoGP bike there is the speed coming over the brow, you have to physically hold your body onto the bike, to stop you almost getting sucked off the back. That bit is quite difficult and then you are braking from a ridiculous speed, thinking ‘I’m not going to stop’, and then at the last minute when the carbon brakes are working really well you manage to get the bike stopped. The favourite part is all the changes of direction, if you can get it really good with this bike it is a really nice circuit.”

Getting the right set-up for the undulating layout is not easy according to Redding, who gave his technical perspective on preparing the bike for Mugello saying,

“To have the bike changing direction well you need quite a lot of weight on the front, or quite a short bike. If you have a short bike you have more wheelie. If you put more weight on the front to get the rear up for changing direction you struggle to stop.”

“Also in Mugello you have some downhill braking, which is actually worse if you have a higher rear. So it’s quite hard to have a good set-up at this circuit to change direction, to not make it too hard for the rider, but also to be able to stop the bike at the end of the straight and going down to places like turn 4.”



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