With barely time for the dust to settle on the emphatic 2015 MotoGP season, today the 2016 season commenced in Valencia, Spain.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa began this first day of testing aboard the 2015 RC213V machine, with the new specification 2016 Michelin tyres and HRC software. As the day progressed, they began to carry out a comparison between the 2015 bike fitted with the Magneti Marelli ECU and the new 2016 prototype machine equipped with the new Honda engine and same software.
It was a productive first day and Marc finished fastest with his time of 1:31.551 on lap 10 of 47. Dani was just 0.130 seconds off his teammate with 1:31.681 on lap 11 of 49, placing him third for the day.
Testing continues tomorrow at 10am local time.
Marc Márquez >> Audio (Cast)
“We went out on track and on the opening laps I lost the front. I realised that the Michelin tyres may have worked well for us in testing at Aragon, but they react differently on every type of asphalt. From that moment we started again, doing a run with the same bike we used during the weekend. Then we changed to the new software and we saw that there is definitely some work ahead for us. It’s only the first day and we have to adjust many things. At the end of the day we tried the new engine together with the Magneti Marelli software, but in order to draw any conclusions we first have to finish setting up the electronics and when we have a good base, then we will be able to evaluate the engine properly.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio (Cast)
“Today was a rather different day. We have done a lot of work, but it is also important to take things slowly. We had the new tyres, so at first we were careful with in order to progressively get a feel for them and understand their reaction with the asphalt at this track. Later on we tried the new Magneti Marelli electronics and the first feeling we have is that they are very much in the preliminary stage and certainly a step backwards. Right now the electronics are still giving us a lot of problems and are difficult to use. We have to work hard to understand it and see what parameters we should concentrate on more. It’s also a job for the rider, because you must gain experience in order to understand what you have and what you don’t, compared with the previous version.”
