2012 GP Racing
For the 2012 GP racing season, Repsol Honda has one major goal – win a championship in all three classes.
This is due to the energy company now having riders in all classes – Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa in MotoGP, Marc Marquez in Moto2, and Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira in the new Moto3 class that replaces the former two-stroke 125cc class.
In the MotoGP class, the Casey Stoner will be looking to defend his title. The Australian made his debut on the Repsol Honda the best year of his career, the 26-year-old taking 16 podiums in 18 rounds, including 10 wins.
But it didn’t take Stoner all 18 rounds to take the 2011 title; he clinched the championship at Round 16 in Phillip Island, his home round.
During the 2011 MotoGP year, Stoner also qualified the RC212V on the pole an impressive 12 times. He is now tied for the record of most poles in a season with Mick Doohan.
Stoner’s only trouble of the 2011 GP season came when he was involved in the controversial crash with Ducati Team’s Valentino Rossi at Round 2 in Jerez; the Rossi/Stoner crash caused a DNF for Stoner.
Once 2011 MotoGP wrapped up, Pedrosa finished with nine podiums, allowing him to secure fourth overall in the MotoGP Standings behind then-teammate Andrea Dovizioso in third, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo in second and Stoner.
Returning in Moto2 is the Spaniard Marc Marquez. In 2011 Moto2, the 2010 125cc MotoGP Champion won seven rounds, finishing his debut season in second overall. Marquez would miss the final two rounds in Malaysia and Valencia due to a crash suffered at practice for the Malaysian Moto2 round.
In the new Moto3 class, with will run 250cc four-stroke motors, the Repsol riders will be Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira.
Repsol says: "The 16-year-old Alex Rins is the latest jewel of the Spanish young riders and will debut in the Motorcycling World Championship as the current Spanish Champion (CEV) in the 125cc class. Miguel Oliveira, also a 16-year-old, is one of the most promising riders of the international scene, as he has already a year of experience in the class and won the last two races of the CEV with a Moto3 of the Monlau Competición Team."
Besides the standard riders, the runner-up in 2011 CEV, Marc Marquez’s brother Alex, will compete in some Moto3 races as a wild card rider.
Since its debut in the Championship, 40 years ago, Repsol has won 27 titles in the different classes (50, 80, 125, 250, 500cc and MotoGP). Despite having already some of the best riders of the grid, Repsol has not yet closed the team for the 2012 season. The company is the official fuel and lubricant supplier of the Repsol Honda Team, in MotoGP. In its Technology Centre, located in Móstoles (Madrid), the energy group develops fuels specific for high-level competition.
