Reigning World Champion Marc Marquez and teammate Dani Pedrosa followed up their three days of testing at Sepang International Circuit recently with a trip to Indonesia to launch the 2017 colours of their Repsol Honda Team, unveiling their challenger for the season at Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) in the nation’s capital.
Marquez and Pedrosa began Friday by meeting excited Honda customers at a dealer facility and then moved on to the JIExpo, where they spent time talking with the media ahead of the launch. The two riders were then joined onstage at the event by Tetsuhiro Kuwata, HRC Director – General Manager Race Operations Management Division, and Team Principal Livio Suppo for the official unveiling of RC213V that the team will race in the 2017 FIM MotoGP™ World Championship.
Marc Marquez: “I’ve come here to Indonesia many times already, and I know how much they love MotoGP. Still, they’re always able to make me feel even more welcome than the last time, which is amazing! It was also very interesting and pleasant visiting the factory yesterday because I love bikes and I liked very much to see how they’re ‘born’ and to meet the people behind all this. They were incredibly supportive and passionate. We’ll do our best to give them a reason to celebrate. We’ve started our winter tests well enough, and now we all must keep working and take more steps forward to be prepared to fight at the top again."
Dani Pedrosa: “Today we officially launched our 2017 season, which is always an exciting moment, even when you’ve already lived it many times. I feel good and I’m really looking forward to starting the new racing year. I’m also happy we came here for our team launch. Last October I wasn't able to attend an event here due to an injury, and so many people from Indonesia showed me their support. Yesterday at the Astra Honda plant also was amazing. There were more than 2,000 people cheering and greeting us!”
Tetsuhiro Kuwata, HRC Director - General Manager Race Operations Management Division: “We wish to thank Astra Honda for hosting our Team Launch here in Jakarta once again, and for making all of us feel incredibly welcome as always. Besides unveiling our 2017 racing project in a country that counts so many passionate MotoGP followers, we had the chance to visit the Astra Honda Motor Factory. That was a very good experience, especially for Marc and Dani, who had the chance to meet with the many people who work in the production sector, and to see how well known they are here and how much support they have. We’ll keep working at 100% to continue improving our bike, to allow Marc and Dani to once again fight at the front in the next MotoGP World Championship.”