Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden commenced a two-day test session at Catalunya this afternoon, but yesterday’s race-winner Pedrosa ended the day in hospital after a heavy tumble at the one/turn two chicane.
Both riders had planned to spend the day doing back-to-back tests with the RC212V spring-valve and pneumatic-valve engines. Pedrosa started with the conventional engine (best lap time: 1m 43.48s), then switched to the pneumatic-valve unit, but that outing (best lap time: 1m 43.81s) was cut short by a minor electrical problem, so the Spaniard swapped machines again. It was during this outing that Pedrosa suffered a highside tumble, landing heavily on his back. He was taken to Barcelona’s Dexeus hospital where x-rays confirmed that he has no broken bones, but he has bruised his back and will need 48 hours of rest and anti-inflammatory medication. Pedrosa will not test tomorrow.
Hayden meanwhile evaluated both engines. The American was happy with the pneumatic-valve engine’s top speed and rideability and spent most of his time working on set-up with that engine. Tomorrow he will focus on race-distance tyre testing with the same engine.
Julián Simón also trained on the Catalunya Circuit today. The Repsol rider, who tried out the new chassis during the Grand Prix’s three days, rode with the old one again while it was the turn for Mika Kallio, rider who receives technical support from Repsol, to try out the new chassis. Simón completed 45 laps and focused on testing tyres, though mechanical problems cut his training session short.
Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 42.721s (73 laps)
“It went smooth today. We tried the new bike, my feeling with it was good, it had some good points. But we need more time to check the bike in a long distance situation. We tried some general setting things with it, and we only using race tyres, seeing what kind of endurance we could get because we had some problems with set-up during the weekend wearing the tyres more than we liked. We’ll run with it more tomorrow and maybe try a new chassis”.
Dani Pedrosa, fastest lap: 1m 43.552s (34 laps)
“The crash happened while I was changing direction in the first chicane. It was a highside and I fell quite heavily. My back and my shoulders hurt. I crashed at the start of my second lap of that run, maybe because the tyres weren’t fully up to temperature. When I fell I was doing some tyre testing with the standard engine. I only did ten laps with the pneumatic-valve engine so it’s still too earlyto give any comments”.
Julián Simón, 1’48.7 secs, 45 laps, 213 Km.
“We’ve been using the old chassis, because we’ve been using it throughout the whole weekend and today it was Kallio’s turn. We’ve gone back to the one we had before, with a similar setup. Personally, I’m ready to ride with with the new one, because I think it has great potential and with some work it can be quite fast. The bike was performing similar to during the race, though the times were slower, because today it was windier and the track wasn’t in such good condition as yesterday. It was more difficult, and on top of that we had mechanical problems with both bikes. Overall however it was a positive day, as we’ve tried out some tyres that I liked a lot. As for Donington, we’re looking forward to doing well there, because it’s a track that’s easier for us and where the things we’ve tried out today will come in handy”.
