The Spaniard, who sits in second in the Riders standings behind his fellow compatriot Jorge Lorenzo, is hoping to continue his excellent form and reduce the gap between himself and the current Championship leader from the Yamaha Factory team this weekend. After his 20th victory in MotoGP last time out at Motegi and his 43rd in his career, the 27 year old will once again be one of the favourites for the victory in Malaysia.
His Australian team mate Casey Stoner, who has three more races to go before hanging up his leathers, returned to action at Motegi with a positive fifth place after experiencing a difficult weekend. Stoner's injured right ankle is affecting his riding ability, but he hopes to be in better shape this weekend in Sepang. The Aussie has claimed four victories in Sepang, two in MotoGP, one 250cc win and a 125cc win.
Dani Pedrosa
"It's two seasons since I raced in Sepang and I'm looking forward to it now. It's a track where you have a little bit of everything - it's hard to ride, it's hot, there are fast and slow corners, hard braking, long straights… and everybody has references from the tests. Nevertheless, we need to wait to see on Friday what the temperature and track conditions are like to understand how the tyres will work because it's normally very slippery. I'm really enjoying racing at the moment and I want to continue like this, pushing the maximum from our side without thinking about the others."
Casey Stoner
"After a disappointing race in Japan, I'm looking forward to going to Malaysia, it's a track where I've had success at in the past. However, this weekend marks the anniversary of Marco's death so I'm sure it will be a strange feeling when we all get on track. It's going to be a hot weekend and it's a physically demanding circuit, my ankle isn't feeling very good after the race in Japan so I'll be resting it as much as possible this week before going on track on Friday. The track is a little smoother and more flowing so hopefully I won't have so many issues as I had in Japan."
Press release courtesy of Repsol Honda Team.
