Pedrosa ready to shine in front of home fans

Catalunya : Repsol Honda - Preview
The Motorcycling World Championship which will be remembered as the championship with the most even and thrilling season start of the latest years will travel this weekend to Catalonia to stage round seven of the 2006 season.

The Repsol Honda Team arrives as one of the teams that has been playing the main role this season so far, having their both riders among the top four of the MotoGP World Championship and leading the teams' classification. Nicky Hayden is second overall, level on points with the leader Loris Capirossi, and young Dani Pedrosa is fourth, thirteen points behind the two leaders.

In the teams' standings, the Repsol Honda Team has an advantage of 42 points over the second qualified team, the Ducati Marlboro Team.

Nicky Hayden, third at the Italian Grand Prix, is still looking for his first victory of the year but keeping the lead thanks to his regularity. After the last ten consecutive races staged between 2005 and 2006, the Repsol rider accounts for nine podium finishes, proving for his tremendous regularity.

Dani Pedrosa, who already knows what it means to win in MotoGP, will be racing at home this weekend and that will make him feel really wrapped up by his fans. The fact of having been to Barcelona for the preseason test sessions will be with no doubt of big help in order to face the preparations for the seventh Grand Prix of the 2006 season.

Last year Nicky Hayden was fifth in MotoGP and Dani Pedrosa took the victory in the 250cc.


Dani Pedrosa: "Catalunya GP is always special for me because I'm at home, all the crowd is looking forward to enjoying a good race and my family and friends will be there. I don't really have more pressure being at home - I always want to get the best result I can - but it's not a secret that a lot of people will come to the circuit for us and I would like to thank them for their support with a great race. When we were at this track for the IRTA test, I could see that people were very excited then - and the race is always much more important. I think we are doing a good job with the team and Honda and we need to keep our concentration to continue this way. Some previous races this season have been difficult for me because I didn't have information with the MotoGP bike. But we have good data from the IRTA test in Catalunya, so I hope it can help us to prepare for the race."


Nicky Hayden: "I quite like the Catalunya circuit. It's quite fast, it's got some quick corners and I've gone ok there in the past so I'm looking forward to it. This weekend starts off three back-to-back races so we're going to have to get it on because there's a lot at stake. We know how important it is to start these three weeks off strongly. I've tested at Catalunya and raced there so I know the track well, and the Spanish crowds always get really into it too. We had a great test after the last race at Mugello so hopefully we can keep rolling. Plus it's Repsol's home, so it's kind of like a home GP for the team. They're a great sponsor so there's definitely a lot of pride going there riding for Repsol Honda. Hopefully we can give them a good result."