MotoGP
Test Jerez: Pedrosa fastest Honda
28 novembre 2007
Dani Pedrosa in second place was the fastest of the Honda riders as he once again got to grips with his brand new prototype RC212V, the Spaniard making the most of cool but sunny conditions to complete 60 laps. With ambient and track temperatures slowly rising to 20 degrees the riders waited until 11.30am before venturing out onto the famous circuit. Steadily improving his pace throughout the day, Pedrosa finished just 0.134s behind the Ducati of Casey Stoner, who walked away from a high-speed fall in the afternoon. Pedrosa’s American Repsol Honda team-mate wasn’t far behind in fifth as he also took advantage of the updates made to his prototype machine since the last test in Sepang, Malaysia which finished ten days ago. Directly behind Hayden came the Honda Gresini of Alex de Angelis who continued his promising adaptation to MotoGP’s demands, setting the sixth fastest time using a qualifying Bridgestone tyre on his 2007-spec RC212V. Team-mate Shinya Nakano finished the day in eighth place and was happy with the steady progress of the team. Randy de Puniet aboard the 2007-spec LCR Honda recorded the ninth fastest time as he spent the day working to improve the rear grip of his RC212V and declared himself confident that the two remaining days of the test would bear further fruit. JiR Team Scot’s MotoGP impressive novice, Andrea Dovizioso, spent the day familiarizing himself with the demands of a MotoGP machine at the Spanish circuit, finishing in thirteenth overall on his 2007 RC212V, and satisfied that there are further improvements in speed to come. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 40.355s – 60 laps “We’ve been testing with the new bike exclusively today and we were looking to see if the issues we had at the first test in Valencia have been solved. The electronic engine settings which control the power delivery and the engine Braking have been improved which makes the machine more rideable and quicker too. The feeling from the chassis is quite good but I have to continue working on the settings to suit me. In Valencia the bike wasn’t ready to complete a lot of laps but today we have been able to do many more. There has been progress in some areas and in other areas we still have some work to do. We’ve tried some changes with the chassis today and we’ll look for further improvements tomorrow. So far we haven’t tested any new tyres and this is an important area to improve lap times, so I’m confident we can make further progress throughout this test.” Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda: 1m 40.923s – 63 laps "Overall it was a pretty positive day. We tried some modifications to the engine to get it running better than it did at the previous two tests and now it seems to be more responsive and to be running a little better - though it’s still not quite there. We also changed a few things on the chassis, for instance the offset, which took a while and reduced our track time somewhat, but this was important to try to understand more about the machine. This is the first time I’ve been able to come into the garage, focus on the 2008 machine and spend the whole day on it so that was beneficial. It wasn’t a perfect start to the test - that’s pretty rare - but we definitely learned some useful things and I’m encouraged by the start we’ve made here today. Let’s see what happens over the next few days and aim to make some more improvements.” Alex de Angelis, Honda Gresini: 1m 41.111s - 58 laps “Although I did my best lap time with qualifying tyre today, I’m happy because every time I went out I was more and more confident on the RC212V. We worked on set-up without making major changes so that I can grow in confidence. In general I’m satisfied with how things are going and we’re taking small steps at this stage to improve rear traction and reduce the front chattering. Tomorrow we’ll continue the set-up work and will test some new front tyres.” Shinya Nakano, Honda Gresini: 1m 41.277s - 65 laps “I was happy with our first day here today. First of all we concentrated on achieving the right machine balance and weight transfer for this track. After this we worked on the general chassis set-up and tried to adjust the settings of the slipper clutch to improve feeling under deceleration. I’m pretty happy at the moment because the feeling from the machine is improving each time I go out so we’re making progress. We didn’t test tyres today and tomorrow we should get the chance to try a new front tyre from Bridgestone.” Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda, 1m 41.313s - 79 laps “This was my first day at Jerez riding the Honda and riding on Michelin tyres and I think the day went OK considering this. We’ve experienced some difficultly finding enough grip at the rear of the machine and this is the main thing that prevented us from going even faster today. Apart from this the feeling from the machine is pretty good and if we can make some progress in this area I should be happy. I gave my maximum today which is what you need to do to find the best set-up and improve the machine. I’m looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.” Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Team Scot, 1m 42.033s - 60 laps “The test has started well and the lap time is not too bad for my first visit to this circuit on a MotoGP bike. The machine is not yet at 100 per cent performance and we need to make some adjustments to the settings to suit this track which is very different from Sepang where we last tested. I need to improve my lap times by more than one second but I’m not worried. The main area to improve is still the stability of the machine under Braking in a straight line and we’ll continue to work on this over the next two days. I’m happy with the start we’ve made today.” |
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