Yesterday marked the dramatic debut of the new 2008 silver livery on the JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V. Andrea Dovizioso took his 2008 800cc MotoGP machine out for the first time today in its new livery at the 2.748-mile Jerez circuit. After many paddock rumours and much interest, JiR Team Scot revealed ‘the jewel of HRC’ resplendent with its striking monochromatic graphics, finally showing to the world what the bike will look like this season.
Yesterday was first of three days of testing dedicated to the set up of the technical package, including a number of 2008-specification upgrades. For the whole day Andrea Dovizioso and the team worked on their busy schedule always running his RC212V in race configuration and with race tyres.
Cirano Mularoni – JiR Team Scot Team manager
“This first day has been a new horizon for us. The new silver livery is personal to us all and elegant and it shows to everyone that we’re doing something very different this year. We also have on the bike the new engine for our technical upgrade and the results are just what we expected. Obviously we’re comparing information today from our previous tests including the one here in November, so everyone in the team has really appreciated the step forward that we are making here. This is just the beginning as the workload and schedule will become even more intense over the next few days.”
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
Time 10th: 1’40”767
“I’ve never had a good feeling with the Jerez circuit, but riding this RC212V I was almost immediately in a position to ride very fast and have a lot of fun. We didn’t want to run qualifying tyres, but instead we decided to concentrate on the setting to find a good balance between the new technical items we have now. I’m very satisfied with the engine – it’s more powerful than the previous one for sure. We are also working on different tyre solutions with Michelin to allow me to be both fast and consistent. We have been trying different profiles and both the 16 and 16.5-inch rim sizes. We have been improving, even if we have some small problems and we’re quite close to the lap times you usually do here in Jerez in race trim, so that is very positive.”
Pietro Caprara – Crew chief JiR Team Scot MotoGP
“Today is a new beginning and our evaluation of the whole day’s work ended with Andrea doing a very good lap time. The team has now worked with the new engine and this obviously has now given us a new direction in which to work in. We now have to fine-tune the whole package. A big part of the work has been done in the garage, where we spent time, sharing a lot of data with both the Showa and Michelin technicians. We were probably on track less than we should have been, but results so far have shown that the cautious methods we’re using are the right ones to reach the target.”
MotoGP Jerez test – Day 1
1) Nicky Hayden Honda 1’ 39”.200
2) Randy de Puniet Honda 1’ 39”444
3) Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1’ 39”528
4) Colin Edwards Yamaha 1’ 39”629
5) James Toseland Yamaha 1’ 39”678
10) Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1’40”767
