Honda desperate for final 800cc glory

Honda bosses have admitted failure to win the final 800cc MotoGP world title in 2011 would be a massive disappointment.

HRC hasn’t seriously challenged for an 800cc world title since the class was introduced back in 2007.

Ducati won the first 800cc world championship with embarrassing ease with Australian Casey Stoner winning ten races.

Since then, MotoGP has been dominated by Yamaha with the 2008 and 2009 titles being claimed by Italian legend Valentino Rossi.

And last year’s title was won with a record points haul by Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, who won half of the 18 races to demolish his rivals.

The closest Honda has come to winning in the 800cc era was when Dani Pedrosa finished runner-up last season and in 2007. Both times though he was over 100-points behind in the final rankings.

HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto told MCN: “It doesn’t matter to me whether it is 800cc or 1000cc, I want to win. Honda has been disappointed that we couldn’t win the championship for a long time. We are disappointed about this already that we haven’t won in the 800cc class, so we hope to put that right this year.”

On the evidence of pre-season testing, Honda is in its strongest position ever in the 800cc era having dominated the winter campaign.

Marco Simoncelli topped the timesheets in the opening Sepang test at the start of February and Casey Stoner led home a Honda romp at the second test in Malaysia recently.

Nakamoto added: “I am never confident but all of the Honda rider’s have looked very strong. Usually in the winter tests we only see Dani is fast, but now all Honda riders are going fast. This means the base machine is at a much higher level than before, so we are optimistic.”