The Circuito de Jerez plays host to the first of three days of testing, in the final runout of the preseason.
The Spanish circuit of Jerez was vacated by the Moto2 and Moto3 riders on Wednesday, reopening its doors for the MotoGP premier class on Friday for three days of finetuning. This is the final test before the 2012 preseason officially concludes this Sunday.
After two tests in Malaysia and with all the factory bikes sharing the track with the CRT machines, the Repsol Honda Team undertook a positive first day in Southern Spain —occupying some of the top spots on the timesheet. Today was a useful moment for regaining feel for the bike and for finding new data for the RC213V at a very different track to Sepang.
Amidst pleasant temperatures and a sometimes bothersome wind as the conditions for the day, Casey Stoner was the quickest rider with a time of 1’39.146. Repsol Honda Team teammate, Dani Pedrosa, was third with a time of 1’39.579.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
1:39.579, 60 laps, 265 km.
“It’s been a pretty tough day, the mechanics had a lot of work to do in the garage and I’ve been stationary a long time, so it was not easy to get into the rhythm quickly. But I’m happy because we have a clear idea about the changes we need to do on the bike to improve tomorrow, especially on braking and the exits of the corners. We also tested the new front Bridgestone tyre, but just for a few laps, so I will keep testing it tomorrow to know if it’s better. Unfortunately, in the afternoon I had a problem on one bike and I couldn’t use it any more, so I spent quite a long time in the box between runs and thinking about the changes we want to do. We didn’t have too much chattering today, but I think it’s because of the circuit characteristics”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
1:39.146, 54 laps, 239 km.
“Today has been quite good, we did race distance with a soft set tyres this morning and we were getting quicker and quicker as we progressed but I think also the circuit was getting better. Then we put the hard tyre on and did a tyre comparison and we had very similar feelings to what we had in Sepang. We tried a few things with the chassis as the bike was proving slow to turn in the corner but in general it is working well especially at the end of the tyre life. On the last exit we did our fastest lap on a new soft rear tyre. It’s been a good first day”.
