Pedrosa‰Ûªs stunning start-to-finish victory and Dovizioso‰Ûªs strong ride to third place indicate that Honda‰Ûªs MotoGP challenge is growing.
With four races done and fourteen to go, Pedrosa is now running second overall, 25 points behind World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).
The Repsol Honda duo have good form on British tarmac, Pedrosa having scored the second win of his MotoGP career in Britain and Dovizioso winning his maiden MotoGP success at a damp Donington Park last year.
The 2010 World Championship status quo was disrupted at Mugello when reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) fell heavily during practice, sustaining a broken leg which will put him out for much of the season.
The title exit of Rossi ‰ÛÒ who had been a close second overall on points ‰ÛÒ left team-mate Lorenzo well ahead in the points chase, but Pedrosa‰Ûªs dominant Mugello pole position, race victory and lap record reignited his bid for the 2010 MotoGP crown.
Pedrosa and Dovizioso have been gradually improving their V4 machines by honing engine, electronics, chassis and suspension set-up to the point where the teams believes it is now ready to challenge for regular victories. This weekend‰Ûªs Grand Prix will be a particular challenge for the MotoGP paddock, since the sport hasn‰Ûªt visited the track since 1986. Between 1987 and 2009 the British GP was held at Donington Park.
‰ÛÏWe arrive at Silverstone in good shape after the victory in Mugello," Pedrosa said.
"We had a very good weekend in Italy and myself and the team need to make the most of it to maintain this momentum. I cannot say much about Silverstone. I've seen some races on video
from the past to check the circuit a little bit, but they have made some changes and I think the layout is also a bit different compared to Formula One, so we will need to find out for ourselves.
From what I've seen I can say it's a fast circuit, high speed overall, with many right-hand corners which are taken with the throttle open. It looks like an old-fashioned circuit, maybe comparable to Assen before they shortened it. We will start on Friday without prior knowledge, but it's the same for everyone so I hope we can adapt as quickly as possible to prepare for the race. We will have three races in a row now ‰ÛÒ Britain, Holland and Catalunya ‰ÛÒ and it will be very important not to make mistakes and to maintain consistency in the results," the Spaniard concluded.
Andrea Dovizioso added, ‰ÛÏI‰Ûªm really excited to go to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. We used to race at Donington Park, which was a track that I really liked and where only myself and Valentino had won in all the Grand Prix classes - 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP.
But despite this I‰Ûªm very much looking forward to Silverstone. It‰Ûªs a new track for everyone and we have no previous reference data for the circuit, which gives us one more challenge for the race weekend. From the layout, it seems a very fast track and this could be favourable for our RC212V, but we will have to wait and see firsthand to get a true idea of how we‰Ûªre going to perform. We arrive at this race in very good shape, with three podiums from four races, and we‰Ûªre feeling especially good after the podium at Mugello - my home race - because this was really significant for me. Now we have to take another step forward because on Sunday I want to fight for the win.‰Û
