MotoGP: Repsol Honda reveal largely unchanged RC213V

The Repsol Honda squad of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa have pulled off the covers from their 2017 RC213V machines, travelling to Honda’s Indonesian Astra factory to show off a largely unchanged machine.

The pair travelled directly to the South East country from this week’s Sepang test, with Marquez saying at the launch that it remains a pleasure to travel to what is both an important market for the manufacturer and has a huge MotoGP fanbase.

“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.”

Pedrosa was equally enthusiastic, after missing out his last chance to attend an event in the country after breaking his collarbone during the Japanese Grand prix in October.

“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!”

The bike will take to the track for the first time in it’s new colours next week at the second pre-season test at Phillip Island.