Today, at midnight in Qatar, the 2010 MotoGP pre-season came to an end and the next time the 800cc engines will rev up will be in the first free practice of the Qatar Grand Prix, on Friday 9 April. Until then, mechanics and riders will continue to work away from the circuits to be ready for the first of the 18 Grand Prixs on the 2010 calendar.
The Repsol Honda Team will use the just over two weeks left until the start to gather information obtained in this test; to finish analysing and fine tuning details -in the case of the Italian Dovizioso-, and to try to find solutions in the case of the Spaniard. Whereas Andrea Dovizioso finished the test with the third best time of the day, five tenths off Stoner –the quickest of the day- and 19 milliseconds off Rossi –second-, Dani Pedrosa finished back in thirteenth place, a clear sign that, at the moment, things are not working well on that side of the Repsol Honda Team garage.
Once again, the riders went out on the track at 6:00 pm, with the sun going down and the spotlights lighting up the Losail circuit. At that time, the thermometer registered 26ºC and the humidity level did not exceed 60%. Andrea Dovizioso completed a total of 66 laps, clocking up his best time in lap 38 when the asphalt was still at a good temperature. As the hours passed by, the track got colder, resulting in several falls. The Italian Repsol Honda Team rider intended to hold a race simulation at the end of the day, but a problem forced him to cancel it when he was already out on the track. In spite of this, Dovizioso left Losail very satisfied with the work done by the team and the performance of the new Honda RC212V 2010.
On the other side of the garage, Dani Pedrosa and his technical team continue to battle to balance a machine that, at the moment, with the new suspension, is extremely nervous when entering and coming out of the turns. The Spaniard locates the problem at the rear of the machine and despite carrying out numerous tests over the two days at Qatar, his low position in the overall standings -13th-, does not invite optimism. However, the technical team and the Repsol Honda Team rider have already demonstrated on several occasions that they are capable of overcoming adversities and over the next few weeks they will surely continue working hard in Japan to find solutions.
On the weekend of the 11 April, the 2010 MotoGP World Championship will kick off at Losail Circuit, with the Qatar Grand Prix.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’56.935 secs, 56 laps, 301 km. >> Audio
“We started to make improvements early in tonight’s session, but after that we couldn’t make any more progress really and so of course I’m not satisfied with the results of this test. It’s obvious that we’re not where we want to be as we approach the first race, so we’ll just have do our best when we come back here and try to make the improvements quickly in the practice sessions. That’s it really. I’m still struggling with the bike moving quite a lot at the front and that’s caused by issues at rear. Because of this I’m also going too slowly through the corners. We have to stay positive and be glad that I’m going into this season fully fit, and we’ll keep working to improve things”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’55.879 secs, 66 laps, 355 km. >> Audio
“I’m really satisfied with these two days of testing because we took another significant step forward. I’m pleased to have the third fastest time today because we improved both consistency and pace, which is a result of the hard work done by Honda and by my team. Today we focused on fine tuning the bike set -up and also the weight distribution. At the end of the session we wanted to do a race simulation but the track was too slippery because of the high humidity. Still, we have reduced the gap to Stoner and we are closer to Valentino as well. Of course we have to keep on working hard, but I’m happy to face the first round of the season with the machine package we have achieved so far”.
