The European roadshow stops off at Mugello this weekend as the MotoGP World Championship gathers pace. Already at the fifth round of the new campaign the series visits one of the most picturesque circuits on the entire calendar, sitting as it does at the foot of the rolling Tuscan hills. Its fast, flowing corners, dramatic elevation changes and one of the longest straights on the calendar make Mugello a unique challenge for the riders, who love to perform for the Italian 'tifosi'. Moto2 has seen four different winners from the opening four rounds of the season so far, Scott Redding adding his name to the roll call at Le Mans to move clear at the top of the championship.
The delicate state of the Le Mans asphalt saw MAPFRE Aspar's riders slip up in their otherwise excellent start to the new season. Nico Terol and Jordi Torres are both looking for a swift return to their best form in Italy, with Terol currently sixth in the championship on 38 points thanks largely to a breakthrough win in the category in round two in Austin. Jordi Torres lies fourteenth in the championship in his full rookie season but having visited this circuit in 2011 he at least has prior knowledge to work from.
Nico Terol:
“I am going to Mugello in good spirits, with my batteries fully recharged and looking forward to putting Le Mans behind me. I know we are in great form, I feel very comfortable with the bike and we seem to be finding what we need to go fast at every circuit at the moment. Mugello is a fast track, I love it and I think it is well suited to my riding style. I am going there with the clear aim of returning to the fight at the front of the pack. France was nothing more than a bump in the road and other than the incident in the race we did a great job there so I am hoping to do the same in Italy. Mugello has a lot of flowing corners with blind entries and it's always great fun to ride. When you are having fun on the bike that's when the lap times come. We need to get the engine running a little better because there is a long straight and even though the set-up is good at the moment we will need to work hard to adapt it to the fast zones at this track.”
Jordi Torres: “We came away from Le Mans with a bittersweet feeling but we are highly charged for the next round. We found out a lot about the set-up in France and that's what we took away from the weekend. I am looking forward to racing at Mugello, a circuit I raced at two years ago and was really impressed by. It is as difficult as it is fun, I love it and I think most of the other riders do too. Regardless of what happened in France our objective remains the same, which is to work hard in every session and try our best to be consistently in the top ten at least. Even though I didn't race at Mugello last year I am sure we can find a good feeling for the bike there from Friday. We'll try and get as much acceleration as we can out of the bike so that we don't lose too much down the straights.”
Mapfre Aspar Moto2 Press Release
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Mapfre Aspar Moto2 Press Release
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