Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa have both said that a good brake setup is crucial to fast laps around their factory's home circuit of Motegi for this weekend's MotoGP round.

Hayden, who had signed for Ducati in 2009, says he isn't too keen on the tight parts of the track and has struggled since he made his debut there in 2003. "This will be my last race on a Honda at their home track, so it would be really nice to get a result for all the Honda people who have worked with me," said the American.

"First time I went to Motegi as a rookie in 2003 I battled with Sete [Gibernau], Valentino [Rossi] and Makoto [Tamada] and they ended up giving me third, my first top-three result. I thought ‘wow, this is going to be a good track for me’. But since then I really haven’t done much there. I’ve struggled in some of the hairpin corners.

"It’s an okay track, I like the combination in the back when you come under the first bridge, that all flows together really nice. I like those tunnels, because they’re different, it almost feels like you need headlights!

"Braking stability is probably the biggest thing, plus acceleration. You need a bike that’s good going back through the gears, so you need a good clutch and engine braking set-up.”

Pedrosa added: "Motegi is one of those tracks that I like because the surface has good grip and not so many bumps. It is important to have good braking power and good acceleration from your machine, which means that the tyres are very important because you need to be able to brake late into the corners and accelerate strongly out of the corners.

"My favourite section of the track is the middle bit, climbing the hill towards the highest point. To achieve a fast lap you need to get your braking points absolutely correct, and the final section is probably most important for a good lap time."