Three intensive weekends of grand prix racing gets under way at Honda’s Motegi Twin Ring circuit on Sunday, with the factory pair of Repsol Honda RC213V riders Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa leading the way as the 2014 championship battle nears its conclusion.

With just four rounds remaining, the long-haul journey to Japan, Australia and Malaysia is followed by the closing round in Valencia, Spain.

The title is almost certain to be decided before that point, after 2013 champion Marquez’s remarkable title defence – amassing a massive points lead by winning the first ten races and the 12th, finishing fourth at the one in between.

At the last two rounds, at Misano and Aragon, however, Marquez’s momentum was interrupted. He slipped off early at the Italian circuit, remounting to finish 15th; and at Aragon, in a brutally difficult rain-hit race, he crashed out of a strong lead in the closing stages, again remounting, to finish 13th.

Even so, the 21-year-old from Cervera still has a firm grip on a classic second successive title. He leads his closest rival by 75 points. All he needs to do at Motegi is to finish ahead of him, and he will be unbeatable.

That rival is his own Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, one of only three other riders to take a race win this season. Multi-champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) also has a mathematic chance of victory, but is 78 points adrift.

As well as his win at Brno, Pedrosa has claimed second place on three occasions, and five thirds, to put himself second overall. This is in spite of an early-season issue with arm-pump problems, requiring remedial surgery after the start of the European season. Pedrosa’s only bad result was a carbon-copy of Marquez’s Aragon experience. After leading the race on slick tyres on an increasingly wet track, he fell one lap earlier than his team-mate. He was also able to continue, and finished 14th.

Both the Repsol Honda RC213V riders have a strong record at the Motegi circuit.

Marquez won the 125 race in 2010, taking the entry-class championship the same year. In 2011 he moved to Moto2, finishing second at Motegi; adding a stunning race win in 2012 – his Moto2 championship year – after he was left on the line at the start. Last year he finished second in the MotoGP race, also going on to win the title.

Pedrosa has won at the Honda-owned circuit four times in a career that has netted a 125cc and two 250cc World Championships. He won the 125 race in 2002, taking the title the following year; and the 250 race in 2004, finishing second the next year, and winning the title both years. He added MotoGP wins in 2011 and 2012, with three third places, the last in 2013.

Two more riders campaign the class-leading Honda RC213V factory V4 MotoGP racers.

German former Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl is the more successful, riding the LCR Honda RC213V. Also a previous Motegi winner, on a 125 in 2008, Bradl was fifth in last year’s MotoGP race, and sixth the previous year. This year his best finishes have been a pair of fourth places – at Austin, Texas and at the last round at Aragon. He lies ninth overall, only five points off eighth. His goal of a top-three podium finish remains top of his agenda.

The second satellite-team rider Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda RC213V) did make the podium at Le Mans in France, but several race crashes have dented his overall score, and he is placed 11th overall. The Spanish former 125cc champion, also a former Motegi race winner in 250 in 2009, has a special role. He and GO&FUN team-mate Scott Redding exclusively race-develop Japanese Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, made by companies closely associated with Honda.

Redding is the top scorer among four riders campaigning the new-this-year Honda RCV1000R production racer, a close copy of the 1000cc V4 RC213V. The British youngest-ever grand prix winner has finished in the top ten three times, and lies a close 13th overall.

Honda’s former 250cc World Champion Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R), is the next, one place lower and only nine points away, after finishing eighth in Aragon, his best result of the year, and his third time in the top ten. Aoyama has won twice at Motegi, in 2005 and 2006, in the 250 class.

His Drive M7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R team-mate Nicky Hayden claimed his second top-ten finish at Aragon, but the 2006 MotoGP World Champion has had a troubled season, plagued by an old wrist injury that forced him to withdraw from round six in Italy, and then to miss four races, after radical surgery during the summer break. The determined American rider returned at Aragon to finish ninth.

Hayden is 16th overall; the fourth RCV1000R rider Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) is one place lower and three points down, after an up-and-down season with three non-finishes, but a highlight of finishing top Open (non-factory) bike at Misano. The law graduate from the Czech Republic is anxious to repeat the feat at Motegi, where he claimed a podium finish in 2010.

The Twin Ring road-racing circuit, built by Honda in mountainous countryside some 120 km north-east of Tokyo, is part of a much larger complex, and is integrated with a banked oval circuit … uniquely the MotoGP bikes pass under the banking to the countryside beyond and return to the start-finish line via two dramatic underpasses.

With 14 corners, eight to the right, the first part of the circuit features especially hard braking and acceleration round U-shaped bends, and there is more of the same as well as faster corners out beyond the first underpass. The circuit is so hard on brakes that special regulations for the MotoGP class make the nowadays optional larger front discs compulsory – up from 320 to 340 mm.

MotoGP first ran at Motegi in 1999, and there have been 15 races there since, including four Pacific GPs as a second Japanese round in addition to Suzuka. Since 2004 it has been the permanent home of the Japanese GP. Honda has six wins out of 15, more than any other manufacturer.

The complex also features kart, oval dirt-track and trials courses and driver-training facilities plus the Honda Collection Hall, where not only historic Honda racing and production cars and motorcycles but also important rival machines star in an internationally renowned museum.




Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez says:

“Aragon was a difficult situation and we learnt a valuable lesson. However, we were lucky that we didn’t lose points to our rivals and now I know that in Japan it’s my first chance to take the championship. I will try not to think about it too much – even if I know it would be great to achieve this on Honda’s home soil. We will go there and work hard from day one and treat it as a normal race weekend and push for the victory on Sunday. Last year was my first visit to Motegi on a MotoGP machine and it was a very difficult weekend, so we hope to have more dry track time this year to find a good set-up.”

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa says:

“Obviously Aragon was a tough race and in the end I made the wrong choice not to come in earlier. Anyway, we have moved on and now I am focused on Motegi. I always enjoy travelling to Honda’s home race, it’s a big event for Honda and this always gives me extra motivation to perform well. The track has a lot of heavy braking and acceleration points, so a good set-up is essential for the braking stability and to get good traction out of the corners. Let’s hope the weather is better than last year.”

LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl says:

“I am really looking forward to the overseas races, especially after my positive fourth place at Aragon. Motegi is a special race track for HRC riders and I have been always consistent there aboard my RCV. Last year, after my injury in Malaysia, I managed to finish the race in fifth position anyway. With four races to go I have to do my maximum for scoring further points and I think we have the potential to end this season with good results on every race track.”

GO&FUN Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista says:

“Motegi is a very unique track: it’s usually called a ‘Honda’ track because of its stop-and-go layout, which requires good traction. Unfortunately, lately we’re struggling with that, but we hope to continue to grow and to start in the best possible way the first of three races in a row. At the race at Aragon we were fighting to get into the top five in both dry and wet condition, and this is a positive sign. The track does not particularly excite me, but in the last two years I’ve always been very strong there. I hope to be able to find quickly a good set-up that can allow me to be consistent, then we will give our best in the race.”

GO&FUN Gresini Honda rider Scott Redding says:

“We are fresh from two difficult races, Misano and Aragon, but I think we have the potential to bounce back in the three flyaway races, starting from Motegi. Moreover, in the first half of the race at Aragon we were the top production Honda, then the arrival of the rain changed everything. I’m looking forward to going out on track at Motegi aboard a MotoGP bike and I hope to have a nice weekend, given that last year in Moto2 I had to race with an injured wrist and I was involved in a crash during the first lap of the race, losing my title hopes,”

Drive M7 Aspar Honda rider Hiroshi Aoyama says:

“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 Aragon and we’re 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. 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.”

Drive M7 Aspar Honda rider Nicky Hayden says:

“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 Aragon 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.”

Cardion AB Motoracing Honda rider Karel Abraham says:

“Motegi is a difficult track, with a lot of hard braking and acceleration from slow corners. The braking is not a problem, but we will feel the difference with the factory bikes out of the corners. I missed the race there last year because of my operation, so I am glad to be fit enough now for all the flyaway rounds. As always, my aim is first to be the top production Honda rider.”

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