Sunday’s Grand Prix of San Marino and of the Rimini Riviera be the second home event for the Ducati Team, and it’s an important round for Valentino Rossi, who lives a short distance from the track. He has two wins at the circuit, in 2008 and 2009, as well as a podium last year.
Though it looks rather simple, the Misano track is actually quite technical and slow, with narrow, short-radius corners. The notable exception is the famous “Curvone,” a fast, challenging right-hander.
The Ducati Team will be busy with the hard work of finding the best setup for the Desmosedici, and both riders will be supported as usual by the fans filling the Ducati grandstand in the “Variante Parco,” the first corner after the start-finish straightaway.
VALENTINO ROSSI, Ducati Team
“We’ll be racing in front of our home fans at Misano, and obviously we’d like to do better than we have at recent races. Indianapolis was very difficult, and we would have preferred to arrive here in better shape, but we’re aware that much of our work is aimed toward the future. For the moment, we must take into account the possibility that our results won’t be satisfying, first for us but also for our fans. We’re all working at our maximum, both at the track and in the company, and in the meantime, we’ll try to do as well as the current situation allows.”
NICKY HAYDEN, Ducati Team
“Indy was a bad race, but some how, some way, you’ve got to try to get over it and move on. Misano has been a tough track for me, because it seems like I can’t ever get through the first corner. It would be nice to catch a bit of a break, because I don’t feel like we’re always getting the results we deserve. We learned a lot about the new bike in Indy, so I hope we’ve got a good starting point there. We’ll see what the weather’s going to do. Hopefully it won’t be too hot, as that makes things more difficult for us. Anyway, we need to do our best and try to improve our bike.”
VITTORIANO GUARESCHI, Team Manager
“Misano is a round that means a lot to all of us, and it’s the home race for Valentino. We’ll have many fans there, and we’d like to put both Vale and Nicky in position to get good results. Naturally, we’ll try our best, as we do at every race weekend, although we know that the type of work we’re doing on the bike pays off over the long term. It’s definitely a difficult moment for us because the results aren’t what we’d like, but it’s very gratifying to see the great effort and determination from our riders, the team and everyone at Ducati. We remain focused on our goals, and we’re committed to following the path we’ve laid out to achieve them.”
MISANO CIRCUIT RECORDS
Circuit Record: Dani Pedrosa (Honda – 2010), 1:34.340 – 160.572 Km/h
Best Pole: Casey Stoner (Ducati – 2008), 1:33.378 – 161.263 km/h
Circuit Length: 4.226 km
2011 MotoGP Race: 28 laps (118.328 km)
2011 MotoGP Schedule: 2:00 p.m. Local Time
Number of laps: 28
Total race distance: 118.328 km
2010 PODIUM: 1st Dani Pedrosa, 2nd Jorge Lorenzo, 3rd Valentino Rossi
2010 POLE: Dani Pedrosa (Honda – 2010), 1:33.948 – 161.936 km/h
DUCATI TEAM’S BEST RESULTS AT MISANO
2010: 5th (Stoner)
2009: –
2008: 9th (Melandri)
2007: 1st (Stoner)
DUCATI TEAM – RIDER INFO
VALENTINO ROSSI
Bike: Ducati Team Desmosedici GP11.1
Race number: 46
Age: 32 (born in Pesaro 16 February 1979)
Residence: Tavullia (Pesaro, Italy)
GPs: 253 (193 x MotoGP, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc)
First GP: Malaysian GP, 1996 (125cc)
Number of wins: 105 (79 x MotoGP, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
First GP win: Czech Republic GP, 1996 (125cc)
Poles: 59 (49 x MotoGP, 5 x 250cc, 5 x 125cc)
First Pole: Czech Republic GP, 1996 (125cc)
World Titles: 9 (6 x MotoGP, 1 x 500cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 125cc)
Rossi’s MotoGP track record at Misano
2010: Grid: 4th; Race: 3rd
2009: Grid: 1st; Race: 1st
2008: Grid: 2nd; Race: 1st
2007: Grid: 2nd; Race: DNF
NICKY HAYDEN
Bike: Ducati Team Desmosedici GP11.1
Race number: 69
Age: 30 (born 30 July 1981 in Owensboro, Kentucky, USA)
Residence: Owensboro, Kentucky, USA
Number of GPs: 146 (146 x MotoGP)
First GP: Japanese GP, 2003 (MotoGP)
Number of wins: 3 (3 x MotoGP)
First GP win: USA GP, 2005 (MotoGP)
Poles: 5 (5 x MotoGP)
First Pole: USA GP, 2005 (MotoGP)
World Titles: 1 (MotoGP, 2006)
Hayden MotoGP track record at Misano
2010: Grid: 14th; Race: DNF
2009: Grid: 6th; Race: DNF
2008: Grid: 16th; Race: DNS
2007: Grid: 3rd; Race: 13th