Positive Finish Of The Repsol Honda Team Tests With The New RC212V

Despite the weather forecasts announcing rain for today, the dark clouds over the Valencia track finally did not release their load and all riders were able to make use of the track until five o’clock in the afternoon to finish the scheduled tests.

Activity was intense on both sides of the Repsol Honda Team, with Nicky Hayden’s and Dani Pedrosa’s mechanics and engineers working conscientiously on the two only units of the RC212V machine available in Valencia. Sharing the track with the rest of the MotoGP teams –most of them also had their debut rides on the new 800cc machines – and some riders of the 250cc class, Hayden and Pedrosa covered 60 and 67 laps each. On this second test day, Hayden covered a total of 240 Km, and Pedrosa 268 Km.

Today, riders, mechanics and engineers of the Repsol Honda Team continued working on the settings and the adaptation of the new RC212V. They also cooperated with Michelin in the evolution of the new-generation tyres specifically made for the RC212V.

After these tests made in the venue of the last Grand Prix of the 2006 season, the Repsol Honda Team has scheduled further tests in November in Sepang, Malaysia, and in Jerez.

Nicky Hayden:

“The new bike’s really nice and Honda’s definitely done some good work with it. The test went pretty well, though we had a little gremlin under acceleration and I would have liked to have gone a little quicker today. The way it was accelerating from second to third gear had a bit of hesitation and we’ll have to work out this detail before we can go a lot further. The chassis seems quite good and there’s definitely more corner speed with this bike - I think the tyres will change a lot with a different profile with more on the edge.”

Dani Pedrosa:

“Today we were lucky because the weather remained dry so this was perfect and we were able to do many laps. Basically we did some tyre testing for Michelin and some more specific set-up work for the bike to continue things from yesterday. The progress was good but it’s still early and there’s plenty of testing still to do before we begin again in 2007. Now I’m looking forward to getting home!”

Non-official times:

1. Dani Pedrosa, 1’32.55, 67 laps
2. Chris Vermeulen, 1’32.69, 88 laps
3. John Hopkins, 1’32.94, 50 laps
4, Casey Stoner, 1’32.94, 68 laps
5. Loris Capirossi, 1’33.02, 75 laps
6. Nicky Hayden, 1’33.03, 60 laps
7. Alex Barros, 1’33.40, 60 laps
8. Valentino Rossi, 1’33.78, 59 laps
9. Jeremy McWilliams, 1’35.90, 31 laps
10. Andrew Pitt, 1’36.40, 45 laps

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