The start of the 2010 World Championship is getting nearer and with the end of the second test day at the Malaysian Circuit of Sepang this afternoon, there are only two test days left -18 and 19 March- before the new season kicks off on the weekend of 11 April. Today’s tests left positive impressions in the Repsol Honda Team garage, although both riders –Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso– acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to do.
The increase in the temperature today compared to the first day made the riders work on the track more difficult. The asphalt was much more slippery today than yesterday and although the times have dropped in general, the track conditions were not favourable to taking excessive risks.
Today, Andrea Dovizioso clocked up the seventh best time, after completing 46 laps of the Malaysian track. Andrea set his best time (2.01’439 sec.) in lap thirteen. The Italian Repsol Honda Team rider held a race simulation in the afternoon, doing a total of 15 laps at a pace of 2 minutes and 2 seconds. This test was very useful for Dovizioso and his team, who collected valuable information about the performance of the new machine as the tyres wear and the fuel load is reduced.
On the other side of the garage, even though Dani Pedrosa managed to shave a little over half a second off his best time yesterday, the Spaniard was still not satisfied. Pedrosa has not been comfortable on his machine at any time over the two-day test and the one second and two tenths that separated him from the best time of the second test day, set by Valentino Rossi, proves this. The process of adapting to the new Öhlins suspension and to the new machine is not proving easy and the excessive vibration and the brusque movements of the machine when accelerating have prevented him from shining at his best.
The two Repsol Honda Team riders are now going home to rest for a few days before returning to action in March at Qatar, where a two-day test is scheduled, the last one before the first Grand Prix of 2010.
Dani Pedrosa, 2:01.478 secs, 57 laps, 316 km. >> Audio
“We put in a lot of work today and tried many things on the machine to improve our pace. We made some progress with the feeling from the engine which is positive, though we didn’t really get the results we were looking for elsewhere, and some of the issues we had yesterday are still there. So, there’s plenty for us still to do before Qatar. The team is working really hard and we’re positive that there’s a lot more to come. Of course I can’t say that eighth is where I want to be on the timesheets at the end of this test, so we’ll definitely look to move things forward in Qatar”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 2:01.439 secs, 46 laps, 255 km. >> Audio
“If we consider the two days in total this second test session has represented a big step forward compared to the last time we came here at the beginning of February. I’m satisfied that we could lap consistently and for the race this is very important. We did a race simulation and the pace with race tyres was good. Today I can’t be totally satisfied with seventh on the timesheets and this was because I wasn’t able to use the soft tyre at its best to improve the lap time. It’s something we’ll have to analyse because getting a good grid position for the race is important. Of course there is still work to do to get closer to Valentino and Casey, but anyway, all-in-all I’m very confident”.
