Today, Wednesday, at 1:00 pm, 2009 came to an end for MotoGP World Championship riders. The third day of testing, only in the morning, has ended and the World Championship says goodbye until next year. The next testing sessions will be held at the beginning of February 2010, on the 4th and 5th. Until then, the MotoGP World Championship riders and teams are banned from testing their bikes.
As regards the weather, today’s weather has been the best since the World Championship arrived at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit last week. The sun, the higher temperatures and total lack of wind allowed the riders to use the track an hour earlier than yesterday and Monday, so from 10:30 am, several riders were already out on the track. As for the Repsol riders, Andrea Dovizioso went out for the first time at 10.33am, and Dani Pedrosa at 10.40 am.
Like the first two days, both Repsol riders have continued working on the set up of their bikes. Pedrosa, who tested his new Öhlins shock absorbers for the first time on Monday, has taken a significant step forward today, along with his technicians, which allowed him to ride more confidently, resulting in the second best time of the day, just 44 milliseconds off the fastest rider, Australia’s Casey Stoner. Pedrosa completed 38 laps of the Valencian track, clocking up his best time in his last lap.
Andrea Dovizioso also had a good day’s testing and was hardly affected by the fall he had yesterday, in which he suffered a hairline fracture to his left hip. Dovizioso completed 51 laps, clocking up his best time in lap 50.
These testing sessions, with positive results for the Repsol Honda Team, are extremely important, as in this pre-season the number of testing days has been significantly reduced. After these few testing days in Valencia, the MotoGP riders will have just 6 more testing days before the first race, which will be held on 11 April. These six days will be held according to the following schedule: 4 and 5 February, Sepang (Malaysia), 25 and 26 February, again in Sepang (Malaysia), and 18 and 19 March in Doha (Qatar).
Dani Pedrosa, 1:31.944 secs, 38 laps, 152 km
“We had a good day out there. The track conditions were very good and there was a lot of grip, so we were able to improve our speed quite a lot. My feeling with the new suspension really improved today and that was our main focus here. It’s a big change because I’ve been riding with Showa since 2003, so of course it takes a while to get used to something new. We didn’t spend a lot of time working specifically on adjustments with the new chassis because it was important to concentrate on one thing at a time. At the next test in Sepang in February it will be a good opportunity to concentrate on the chassis. My focus now is to take some rest and then prepare as best I can for 2010. We need to start the season at full strength – in terms of me physically and the machine package. That’s what the whole Team will be working on through the winter.”
Andrea Dovizioso, 1:32.825 secs, 51 laps, 204 km >> Audio
“Today we confirmed some of the setting improvements we found yesterday, and we also tested some solutions that we couldn’t get round to yesterday because of my crash. I improved my lap time and I was able to go faster than during the whole race weekend, so this is positive. All in all I’m very confident because I could lap at 1m 32.8 at the end of today’s sessio n, and this lap time is as good as race pace. The stability while braking has improved and I think that we are working in the right direction, though we still need to take a step forward. For instance, we can still improve the drivability on the exit of corners and that’s something we’ll work on in February. Now, with the season over, we will have some rest. I have two charity events coming up and then I will spend the winter with my family and friends. We’ve been travelling a lot, so I like to stay at home during the winter break and get ready for 2010.”
