The Repsol Honda Team remained at Brno on Monday for the first of two days of testing following yesterday’s Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. Fresh from their third and fourth place finishes, Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa were joined by most of the MotoGP field as the factory Honda pair began a full schedule of testing, including further analysis of the RC212V ‘s updated chassis and the latest evolution of the 800cc engine.
In the morning Nicky Hayden carried out tests of new chassis components in pursuit of further handling improvements at the 5.403km (3.357-mile) Brno circuit. During the afternoon the World Champion began a series of evaluation runs on new tyres from Michelin until rain at 16.30 brought the test to a finish. Hayden lapped consistently in the 1m 58s bracket and was able to log a best lap time of 1m 58.42s – nearly three tenths of a second inside his fastest lap from yesterday’s 22-lap race.
Dani Pedrosa also increased his pace today, lapping in 1m 58.55s which was an improvement of 0.4s on his best from yesterday. The 21-year-old Spaniard spent the day analysing the RC212V’s uprated frame in combination with the latest engine the Repsol Honda pair used over the race weekend. Weather permitting, Pedrosa will begin tyre testing for Michelin tomorrow before the trucks are loaded up once again ready for the trip to the Misano World Circuit in Italy where the Grand Prix of San Marino takes place on September 2.
Nicky Hayden Best lap time: 1m 58.42s – 76 laps
“Today’s session went okay. This morning we tested some new components and worked on the set-up of the machine with the updated chassis. In the afternoon we mainly tested some different tyres for Michelin and we were able to string some 1m 58s laps together. Doing it on Monday is always a little bit late but certainly we had a lot more consistency today and some more speed too. Then in the afternoon we tested tyres until the rain came and we called it a day. We’ll see what the weather throws at us tomorrow and get back to work.”
Dani Pedrosa Best lap time: 1m 58.55s – 66 laps“We concentrated on testing some new parts for the RC212V today – things that we were not able to use over the race weekend. They were not big changes and the differences are subtle but I think we found some useful information from the test. Today we didn’t take a big step forward though we have some ideas of where we can improve things further. We were concentrating on the chassis and engine so we didn’t test tyres today. If the weather is kind to us we’ll continue with this and test tyres tomorrow.“
Unofficial Lap Times And Tyres: (Q= Qualifying tyre used)
1. Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 57.07s Q
2. John Hopkins - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 57.71s Q
3. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda Team 1m 58.42s 76
4. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda Team 1m 58.55s 66
5. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 58.60s
6. Loris Capirossi - Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 58.83s
7. Colin Edwards - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m 58.90s
8. Carlos Checa - LCR Honda 1m 59.08s
9. Alex Barros - Pramac d’Antin Ducati 1m 59.10s
10. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m 59.20s
11. Randy de Puniet - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m 59.35s
12. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m 59.47s
13. Shinya Nakano - Konica Minolta Honda 1m 59.78
14. Sylvain Guintoli - Tech 3 Yamaha 1m 59.80s
15. Makoto Tamada - Tech 3 Yamaha 2m 00.23s
16. Kurtis Roberts - Team Roberts 2m 00.31s
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