After yesterday’s double podium in the San Marino GP, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were back on track today testing at the Misano circuit.
It was a productive day for the Spanish riders who had a busy test programme. Honda Racing Corporation brought the next evolution of the 2014 bike to test, complete with new Magneti Marelli hardware. Both Marc and Dani reported positive feedback on its development but agreed there were still areas to improve. TheHRC engineers will now return to Japan with the data collected in order to complete the final stages of the 2014 project in time for the Valencia test.
Marc and Dani also tested a new swing arm and some other small parts on the current 2013 RC213V machine to assist them in the final five races and their battle for the Championship.
Marc, who had a small crash in turn twelve whilst trying a new geometry on his current bike, set the fastest time of the day, on the new 2014 machine, with 1:33.264 on lap 70 of 71, just three tenths off his record pole time from Saturday of 1:32.915. Dani was sixth fastest for the day with 1:33.892 recorded on lap 57 of 74 on his current machine.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
1:33.892, 74 laps, 313 km.
“We’ve tried out a lot of things today, with a view to solving the rear grip issue that we’ve been having. Generally speaking, that was the focus for today and some things we experimented with worked well –and others not so well. As for the new bike, I only put in three or four laps with it and we still need to make various changes for the next time we ride with it, after Valencia. Making adjustments to the new machine wasn’t our main objective today.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
1:33.264, 71 laps, 300 km.
“The day went well and we tried out a lot of things with the setup –above all the geometry– and we made considerable improvements. We’ve also gathered some useful data, so this test has been very useful ahead of the five remaining races. We also rode next year’s prototype, which I feel fairly comfortable with already. We’ve worked well and the important thing is that we have a good foundation.”
