Today the Circuito de Jerez saw the first of two days of practice that will bring an end to all MotoGP activity in 2008. Tomorrow is the final day of work this year for all MotoGP riders before the obligatory winter break. The Repsol Honda Team will not be back at work until February 2009.
Practically all the teams and riders that will compete next season in MotoGP were at the circuit in Andalusia, excepting the Suzuki and Kawasaki teams, who have chosen to end the year at the Australian circuit of Philip Island, and the runner-up in this year`s World Championship, Casey Stoner, recovering from his recent operation on his damaged wrist.
The intense cold spell that is currently affecting the Iberian Peninsula also reached the south of Spain, the thermometers this morning struggled to reach 10ºC. This forced the start of the tests scheduled by the Repsol Honda Team, and the others, to be delayed until 1pm, and even though there were sunny spells throughout the day and the track reached 23ºC, the cold wind – the air temperature was just 12º – obliged the riders to call it a day a little after 4:30.
The recently resurfaced track at the Circuit of Jerez was praised by all the riders in jerez today. Dani Pedrosa, official record holder of the track record: 1’40.116 secs. – which he set in the Spanish GP 2008 when the Repsol Honda Team rider won the race – lowered his best time by a little over half a second, the only rider to get under 1.40. His best time was a 1’39.525 secs, and on race tyres. With the new tyre regulations, a single supplier established for 2009, it is worth mentioning that classification tyres have disappeared. The novelty today was that Pedrosa already has the number 3 painted on the fairing of his Repsol Honda RC212V, showing that he was third in the recently finished MotoGP Championship 2008.
The Spanish rider did a total of 41 laps of the circuit in Jerez, and set his best time on the penultimate lap, although throughout the day he was always up with the fastest riders. Pedrosa spent the day trying out different technical solution for the engine, with his eyes on developing the bike that he will ride in 2009. His teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who is still getting used to the official Repsol Honda RC212V, did a total of 48 laps and set the seventh best time the session on the final lap, ending a little over 2 seconds behind his teammate.
These tests will continue tomorrow, all day, and are the final of day of practice this year. These two days of practice are vitally important for the Repsol Honda Team, as they will decide how the Honda engineers develop the bike during the winter break.
Dani Pedrosa, 1st, 1’39.525 sec, 41 laps, 181,343 Km. >> Audio
“They resurfaced the whole track in August and the new asphalt is very grippy and smooth, so I was able to do some good lap times despite the cold temperatures and the strong winds which we had to deal with. Today we focused mainly on the engine, but the low temperatures meant that we started quite late this morning and stopped quite early this afternoon, so I need another day of testing to give a better evaluation of the latest engine configuration which is quite different from before. We also did some work on electronics, working to improve corner-entry performance and so on, but I think we need some more time on the motorcycle to really understand this latest engine configuration.”
Andrea Dovizioso, 7th, 1’41.655 sec, 48 laps, 212,304 Km. >> Audio
“Conditions were not perfect this morning, it was very windy and very cold, but we need to find a good feeling with the bike because it’s quite different to what I’m used to and we have many things to try and to adjust to my riding style, so we need to do a lot of laps, that’s why we were first on track this morning! I am happy because my feeling is coming better, though it’s still not perfect, of course. We tried many different things today which improved my feeling, like adjusting the clutch, for example. We did three or four exits with the 2008 bike and then moved to the 2009 prototype machine, and the feeling was immediately much better, so we stayed focused on that bike. The whole package is better with the 2009 bike, everything is better, it feels more controllable. It is a good sign that the new prototype is better first time out. Tomorrow we will continue to work on adapting the bike for my style.”
