The Repsol Honda MotoGP team has a small army of press officers working for them. In addition to the PR person assigned to each rider, as is common for all of the factory MotoGP riders, Honda also has PR people from Spanish petroleum sponsor Repsol, as well as their Honda Pro Racing arm, aimed at providing press information for all of the Japanese giant's racing activities.
The good news for race fans is that the army of press officers also generate a small mountain of press releases, interviews and other information. Today, Honda provided the transcript of an interview produced with the 2011 World Champion Casey Stoner, conducted during the first Sepang test at the beginning of February. The interview provides a fascinating insight into the mind of the Australian, and his thoughts on racing and life. In the interview, Stoner discusses how the new 1000s are different from the 800s, whether the racing will change much, the challenges he faced defending his first title and interestingly, the differences between his legendary clash with Valentino Rossi at Laguna Seca in 2008, and the move that amazed even Kevin Schwantz, Stoner's pass on Jorge Lorenzo at the terrifying Turn 1 in 2011 at the same circuit.
Below is the interview, in the form of a press release, as issued by the Honda Pro Racing service:
Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta Allen Berg
Marc Marquez' recuperation is proceeding apace, but he is still not at 100%. That is what the Spaniard told a press conference today at the presentation of one of his personal sponsors, Garmin, the manufacturer of navigation equipment. Though his vision is still improving, he is still not fully fit and is uncertain of being fit in time for his planned return on March 7th in a private test at Portimao, and even his appearance in the season opener in Qatar a month later is not absolutely certain.
Marquez is still suffering with double vision problems while looking up, he told the press. His vision had improved massively after the operation he had to correct the problem - a result of the massive crash he had at Sepang, which left him with double vision in his right eye - but the symptoms remain when looking up. That is a major obstacle, given that when a rider is in a racer's crouch, he spends nearly all of his time looking upwards.
Karun Chandhok Alain de Changy Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever
Testing continued for the MotoGP CRT machines at Jerez on Tuesday under blue skies and balmy temperatures, but despite ideal conditions, the track offered much less grip than it did on Monday. The tricky conditions saw a number of crashes during the day, with Aleix Espargaro going down twice, Danilo Petrucci crashing once and Karel Abraham crashing the satellite Ducati he was testing, stating afterwards that he thought there could be oil on the track.
Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AsphaltandRubber/~3/ERuwQptVBdE/
Tony Brise Chris Bristow Peter Broeker Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown Warwick Brown
The daily press release from Repsol, covering Maverick Viñales, Miguel Oliveira and Alex Marquez, the three riders they are backing in Moto3:
Derek Daly Christian Danner Jorge Daponte Anthony Davidson Jimmy Davies Colin Davis Jimmy Daywalt
