MotoGP has returned to action today at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia, the same place where, just a few weeks ago, 2010 pre-season preparations resumed activity after the long winter break.
The Repsol Honda Team riders, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, went out on the track at around ten o’clock this morning- local time- and worked hard along with a large crew of HRC technicians until 5:00 pm, taking a break for just as long as they needed to have lunch.
The Spanish Repsol Honda Team rider, Dani Pedrosa, had a small fall at 1:40 pm, when on left turn 9 of the Malaysia track, one of the slowest on the circuit, he came off his bike without injuring himself, after the front tyre of his Honda RC212V lost grip. Pedrosa, who at the time had completed 26 laps of the Sepang circuit, was working hard with this technical team to improve the suspension of his machine, when he fell after breaking hard. Dani went back to the garage on his own feet and after speaking to his technical crew, he decided to take a break for lunch while the team’s mechanics checked over the machine.
In the meantime, on the other side of the garage, Andrea Dovizioso had a quieter day. The Italian advanced step-by-step, confirming along with his technical team that the improvements he asked HRC for after the previous test have made an overall improvement. After completing 52 laps, Dovizioso clocked up the third best time in lap 36, with a time of 2.01’631 sec, 536 milliseconds off Valentino Rossi, the fastest rider at the Malaysian track today. The Italian declared himself very satisfied with the direction in which the development of the machine is going and with the huge effort of Honda HRC.
At 3:30 pm, Dani Pedrosa went back out on the track after his team had repaired the damage to the machine. The afternoon passed without incident for the Spaniard and at the end of the day, he declared that he was not completely satisfied with the performance of his machine. Dani insisted that they still have a lot of work to do to improve the overall level of competitiveness. Pedrosa completed 47 laps of the Malaysian track, clocking up his best time in lap 41. His best time, 2.02’036 sec, was good enough for seventh on the timesheet, 968 milliseconds off Rossi.
Tomorrow, Friday, the MotoGP riders will complete the second and definitive test at Sepang to continue testing in Qatar next month, where the last tests will be held before the 2010 World Championship kicks off on 11 April at the Losail Circuit, located just outside Doha.
Dani Pedrosa, 2.02’036 sec, 47 laps, 261 km. >> Audio
“We did a lot of work today and ran through quite a few machine adjustments but the bike was moving around quite a lot and we didn’t find the solution for that today. Tomorrow we will focus on increasing our speed in the corners and look to make a few improvements to the settings which should help us. I had a slow-speed crash in the hairpin because basically I braked too late but didn’t want to run off the track – and the front folded. Testing time is important for us because there’s not too much time left before the season starts, so we’ll be looking for a productive day tomorrow.”
Andrea Dovizioso, 2.01’631 sec, 52 laps, 288 km. >> Audio
“I’m very happy about this first day of testing. We have the third fastest time but the most important thing is that we were able to consistently improve our pace. On every session out of the pits we were able to go quickly and this is encouraging. Of course there is still a lot of work to do as we have to reduce the gap from the first riders but I’m confident, and I’m very happy of the development work done by Honda. Today we changed my position on the bike with very positive results and we also tested some new electronic settings. Tomorrow we want to do more laps to confirm our race pace.”
