MotoGP Preview: Grand Prix Of Spain

MotoGP races in Europe for the first time this season in front of the big, enthusiastic crowds at the Jerez Circuit for the Grand Prix of Spain.
By Paul Kelly
redbullindianapolisgp.com
Thursday, March 27, 2008

EVENT: Grand Prix of Spain

WHERE: Jerez de la Frontera Circuit, Jerez, Spain. Circuit is 2.748 miles (4.423 km), with 13 turns. Race is 27 laps.

WHEN: Sunday, March 30. It is the second of 18 events this season.

2007 RACE WINNER: Valentino Rossi, by 1.246 seconds over Dani Pedrosa

2007 POLE WINNER: Dani Pedrosa, 1 minute, 39.402 seconds

U.S. TV: 3-4 p.m. (ET), Sunday, March 30, Speed

THE AMERICANS: U.S. riders Nicky Hayden (Owensboro, Ky., Repsol Honda Team), John Hopkins (Ramona, Calif., Kawasaki Racing Team) and Colin Edwards (Houston, Yamaha Tech 3) will compete in this race. Edwards finished seventh, 2006 World Champion Hayden 10th and Hopkins 12th in the season-opening Grand Prix of Qatar on March 9, won by 2007 World Champion Casey Stoner.

•Nicky Hayden: "Qatar wasn't a great weekend for us, but we'll be working hard to move on from that at Jerez. Our bike should work good at Jerez, and in the past the Michelin tires have worked really good there. I think it's a cool track, and it's not a top-speed track. I like tracks where you've got to put sections together, and Jerez all flows together pretty good. The atmosphere is pretty cool – you come into the stadium section on Sunday morning, and it's wild. From a riding point of view, you definitely need edge grip for all the long corners, and you need a bike that steers good in those long corners. It's a good track and one of my favorites. But it's the atmosphere that really makes it. If you haven't been there, you need to go."

•John Hopkins: "The abductor muscle I tore at Phillip Island in January still isn't completely fixed, but everything's going OK and I've been training hard. I've been in Miami, the sun's been out, and I've been taking care of myself before Jerez. We've had some more MRI scans done, which show the injury is still definitely there, unfortunately, but it's not been keeping me from working on my fitness. Despite the muscle problem, I really feel 100 percent ready for the race, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm definitely going to improve on the position I got at Qatar."

THEY SAID IT: "Nowadays you can design a racetrack on the computer, you can do whatever you want – make that, generate this, design that. You can use every trick in the book, but if the place don't have that atmosphere, money can't buy that. Even if a racetrack gives tickets away, you can't guarantee the atmosphere you get at Jerez – there's explosions going off; it's just wild, and that's what makes it so good." – Repsol Honda Team rider Nicky Hayden, about the enthusiasm of the huge crowds for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez

FAST FACTS: Jerez is one of only four circuits last season where Casey Stoner didn't finish on the podium en route to his first World Championship. He finished fifth in this event. Stoner still has finished in the top six in all 19 of his starts for Ducati since joining the team before the 2007 season … Valentino Rossi has six career victories at Jerez, including five in MotoGP … Rossi is winless since the 2007 Grand Prix of Portugal, a span of five races. If he fails to win this event, it will be the longest drought of his MotoGP career since his first victory in the class in 2000 at Donington Park, England … Rossi can become the first MotoGP rider to record 100 podium finishes if he places in the top three this weekend … 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden confirmed he will ride the 2008 edition of the Honda this weekend, as he competed on a 2007 machine in the season-opening Grand Prix of Qatar on March 9 … Hayden was quickest during preseason testing at Jerez in February, turning a top lap of 1:38.848 on his Repsol Honda Team Honda/Michelin … The top three finishers in the Grand Prix of Qatar on March 9 comprised the youngest podium in the 60-year history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Stoner, 22, won the inaugural MotoGP night race ahead of rookie Jorge Lorenzo, 20, and Dani Pedrosa, 22, resulting in an exact average age of just 21 years and 47 weeks. That broke the previous record, which had stood since the 1976 French Grand Prix, where Barry Sheene, 25, won, followed by Johnny Cecotto, 20, and Marco Lucchinelli, 21 … The 125cc and 250cc classes also compete this weekend. American Stevie Bonsey, from Salinas, Calif., is riding an Aprilia for the DeGraaf Grand Prix team in 125cc.

***

Red Bull Indianapolis GP tickets: Tickets are on sale for the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sept. 14, 2008.

Tickets can be purchased either online at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com at any time; on the phone by calling (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area or (317) 492-6700 locally between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday; or visiting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ticket Office on the first floor of the IMS Administration Building at 4790 W. 16th St. in Indianapolis from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

All tickets for this event are three-day tickets, with both reserved and general admission seating available.


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