Second day of training for the Repsol riders at the Circuito de Jerez, who carried out the three day testing schedule according to plan, ending the day with positive sensations. Both Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden only rode the RC212V 2008, and the two were able top get a good pace which in the end brought them first and sixth position respectively, the Spanish rider being the fastest with classification tyres and the American the fastest with race tyres.
The riders also had to wait for the track to warm up today, because even though the day was clear the cold weather meant that the track was not in the most favourable conditions. Once out on the track Dani Pedrosa continued to work where he left off yesterday, trying to improve the specifications of the RC212V 2008 step by step, although he spent a large part of the morning in the pits whilst his mechanics made some changes. In the afternoon he did a lot of laps and was able to make progress on several fronts. However, all the tyre work has been left for tomorrow.
His teammate, Nicky Hayden, did quite a few more laps, almost 80, and was able to end the day pleased with the progress he had made and with the consistency of his times. The Repsol rider ended the day being the fastest of those who had not been using classification tyres, something else that will make him optimistic about the work he has been doing.Tomorrow the riders have another tough day`s testing ahead of them, the aim being to collect as much useful information as possible for the development of the bike the two Repsol riders will use next year.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’39.993 seg, 53 laps, 235 Km.
“We ended up with the fastest time of the day which is nice, and the day’s testing was pretty productive. We started quite late again this morning after waiting for the track conditions to warm up and we also spent quite a lot of time stopped in the garage making machine setting changes, but this is normal for testing. In the afternoon we did more laps, making further set-up adjustments and continuing the work from yesterday. We’ve been doing short runs of not many laps because it’s a new bike and there are many small things to adjust. When we have done this base work we will begin to do longer runs. My fastest lap today was on qualifying tyres because it’s important to see how the bike reacts with the extra grip. It was not a bad lap time, especially since it’s the first time with this bike on qualifiers at Jerez, though we’re not at the level that we were at the end of the season when I took the four pole positions in a row. We didn’t have time to test the other Michelin tyre options here today so there’s plenty of work still to do tomorrow”.
Nicky Hayden, 1’40.692 seg, 78 laps, 345 Km.
“I think we picked up where we left off yesterday and the test went quite well again. We didn’t work any miracles out there but we chipped away at the times and made some improvements. I wasn’t a lot faster today but I was able to take a little bit off the lap time and was certainly more consistent in my pace than before. I think everyone in front of me today used qualifying tyres and as far as the team knew nobody went faster than 1m 40.6s on race tyres, which is pretty encouraging because yesterday I was definitely off by a couple of tenths on race tyres. Today we were right in there, the team’s done a good job and we had quite a good day. We were trying some quite big changes with the chassis set-up today which is what you have to do to learn how the bike reacts and behaves in different conditions. Overall we collected a lot of useful information and hopefully we can keep the progress going tomorrow”.
