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Nicky Hayden take third in Jerez shoot out

In MotoGP

18 febbraio 2008

Repsol Honda factory rider Nicky Hayden finished third in today’s IRTA ‘Official’ pre-season MotoGP test shoot out at the 4.423 km Jerez circuit, Spain. The shoot-out is the first competitive meeting of the year for the MotoGP riders with the fastest man in session winning BMW sports car.
The session was run in windy and cold, 15 degree ambient temperatures, with a track temperature of just 12. Australian Casey Stoner (Ducati) took the prize ahead of Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)with Hayden, riding the latest version of the RC212V with the engine using standard valve springs, just two-tenths of a second behind Rossi in third.

The next fastest Honda rider was Italian 2008 MotoGP debutante Andrea Dovizioso aboard the JiR Scot Honda who ended the 40 minute session with fifth fastest time. Dovizioso’s technicians had worked off the dry weather base settings they had found on the opening day of the three-day test and had only to make small suspension setting changes to the RCV before the young Italian set his best times of the day.

The LCR Honda team did not find the ever changing track conditions a challenge. The team started the wet session with the wet weather base set up they had established at the Phillip Island test and it worked perfectly at Jerez. Together with team rider Randy De Puniet they quickly found the tyres to match the softer set up and were quickly up to pace. Towards the end of the session De Puniet felt the wets go off and knew that he could go faster and opted to try a slick rear tyre but it did not work out in the rapidly decreasing track temperatures.

The San Carlo Gresini Honda team were again in top form with Shinya Nakano working off the dry weather base set up of yesterday. Japanese star Nakano came into the pit early in the session to soften up the suspension slightly before returning to the track to set sixth fastest time in the shoot-out.

Alex De Angelis on the second San Carlo liveried RC212V Honda ended the day with 11th fastest time one
Second down on his team-mate. De Angelis is another MotoGP debutante in 2008 and has performed above expectation during winter testing. The Sanmarinese spent today’s wet session finding a good base setting for wet conditions not wishing to go into the new season with no experience of the RCV on a wet track surface chasing a fast time was not on his programme.

Honda rider lap times and quotes.

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 50.785s – on lap 15 of 16. “It was fun, because it’s a bit of competition, and not just because there was a car on the line, we could’ve been racing for a piece of bubblegum and everybody would’ve tried just as hard! We’re all competitors and it was pretty fun but conditions were not ideal. I wish they had been a little more stable, but right at the end when the clock was about to hit zero the conditions were almost at their worst, they were about to go dry. We did our best time a little earlier in the session. We ran full rains throughout, I seen that 49 and knew that was going to be tough, Casey (Stoner) really put one down. Nonetheless the bike was working pretty good in the rain. I’m not happy about third but for me those intermediate conditions – a little patchy with a dry line starting to form – are about the worst. That’s something I’ve definitely been working on and thinking a lot about, so in some ways I’m happy we did okay in those conditions. Full rain’s normally not too bad for me and the dry’s not bad but that in between bit is quite tricky, so we’ve worked a lot on that. It’s been a positive day, even this morning in the rain we didn’t have to make any big changes to get the bike reasonable. We were really good in the full wet, the Michelins were working good and there was one front in particular that I liked. We just need to improve some more in those in between conditions.”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: Dani did not ride today. “After riding yesterday for the first time since I injured my right hand, the hand was quite swollen and inflamed, so we didn’t want to take any further risks going out in the wet today. I will go out again when the track is dry. We have three weeks to go before the first race of the year in Qatar, so I hope the hand will continue to improve so I can work on my physical condition and on bike set-up.”

Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scot Honda: 1m 51.312s – on lap 13 of 15. “After a morning of intense rain which – in any case allowed me to be third on wets – the qualifying session was held in different conditions, with the track damp and the level of grip changing with every lap. Close to the end of the session, when the situation was more stable, the Tarmac was close to dry and there was another good tyre to try and test, but the session was nearly over and I didn’t have the chance to use it. The fifth-best time in qualifying is not too bad, I’m satisfied, it’s only if I look at the gap at the four in front, that we can see we need to improve. We do have a technical package that allows us to do better than this and this is what we’re going to do! We will have another important day tomorrow hoping for good weather, and if we get it, we can achieve more significant improvements, get more information and do a lot of work”.

Shinya Nakano, San Carlo, Honda Gresini: 1m 51.594s – on lap 11 of 16. “The wet session gave us the chance to test some different sets of tyres, some soft and some medium, and get ready for the time challenge in the afternoon. When the time came to attack and try to post a fast time we had a good pace but the track started to dry. Just at the decisive moment I ran into some traffic and if it wasn’t for that I could have done better than sixth place. I’m happy though because this new bike is a big improvement.”

Randy De Puniet, LCR Honda: 1m 51.979s – on lap 8 of 11. “I usually have a good pace in the wet but today’s 40-minute session was strange. When I went out with a rain used tyre the feeling was pretty good. Then, after some laps I used a new one but the surface started to dry up and grip was not enough. I made some laps on qualifiers but in those conditions it was impossible to catch Stoner. This morning we fixed the bike in the wet and it was interesting for me. After the official session we had to stop our job because the wind was to strong”.

Alex De Angelis, San Carlo, Honda Gresini: 1m 52.463s – on lap 10 of 13. “I’m happy because it was important for me to get some laps under my belt in the wet – it could have been really difficult for me turning up at the first race without any experience in the rain. Today’s test gave us the chance to gather some telemetric data that can help us set the bike up to my riding style in the wet. So all in all it’s been a positive day, I’m feeling better on the bike every day and I’m improving my feeling with the team.”