Hiroshi Aoyama ready for home race
After picking up his best result of the season at Motorland the DRIVE M7 Aspar Team’s Japanese star hopes to maintain form at Motegi
It’s the moment of truth for the MotoGP World Championship as the paddock is packed up into flight cases and sent off to the other side of the world for three races that traditionally decide the title outcomes in the three categories. Japan, Malaysia and Australia are the destinations for the next three races with Motegi playing host to the fifteenth round of the season this Sunday. The home of Honda is a special circuit that places huge demands on the riders and machines, with a passionate local crowd that will look forward to welcoming the elite series of motorcycle racing after an Aragón round that saw three of the top four riders in the championship crash out. Despite Jorge Lorenzo’s victory in Spain, Marc Márquez has it all in his favour to wrap up the title with three rounds to spare – the current World Champion just needs to finish in front of Dani Pedrosa to seal a successful defence of his crown.
Hiroshi Aoyama heads to his home race in good form after taking a big step forward in the last round at Aragón, which he backed up with his best race result of the season in eighth place. The DRIVE M7 Aspar Team rider and his crew managed to improved the handling and corner speed of his Honda and now he heads to Motegi feeling full of confidence and motivation. Nicky Hayden made a dream return to action following a lengthy lay-off through injury at Aragón, the DRIVE M7 Aspar Team rider picking up a ninth place finish after building his feeling all weekend. The American knows Motegi presents a tougher challenge with its numerous hard-braking zones, which will put huge demands on his recently-operated wrist.
Hiroshi Aoyama: “Next weekend is my home Grand Prix. Racing in Japan is always an extra source of motivation, because I am surrounded by my family, friends and fans. We go into the race in good form, we took a big step forward at Aragón and we’re a moving in the right direction. We made some changes to the set-up that improved the handling and speed of the bike so hopefully we can continue to improve it at Motegi. I know the circuit well, which is a good thing, but the hard acceleration zones and long straights won’t necessarily help us compared to the factory bikes. Even so we will look to do our best. We closed the gap to the factory riders at Motorland so let’s see if we can get even closer at Motegi. Motegi, Phillip Island and Sepang are hugely different tracks from one to the next but we have a good base set-up so we can look ahead to this run of races with optimism.”
Nicky Hayden: “The Grand Prix of Japan is always an interesting and different weekend. It’s a special atmosphere, the fans are passionate and Japan is the home of most of the biggest motorcycle manufacturers in the world. I love racing in Japan and I have had some good times there in the past, in fact last year I started from the front row at Motegi, which was good. This weekend will be tough because I am still working hard physically to get back to my best shape and Motegi is a demanding track, with some of the hardest braking on the whole calendar. Obviously that’s not ideal for a rider that has under gone major wrist surgery recently but at Aragón I was able to get a feel for riding again and I am looking forward to giving my best to be as fast and competitive as possible in Japan. This is still a recovery phase for me and I know it will take another couple of races to get back to full strength but I will not stop working until we get there. It’s a demanding three weeks ahead but I love the flyaway races because we go to three very different but equally interesting circuits.”