The calm after the storm. After an intense race day which took place yesterday at the Andalucian track for the Spanish Motorcycle Grand Prix, the teams jumped back into action today – far from the tension of a weekend of competition -, to carry out a day of tests, vital for development for the forthcoming races. In a season where the winter test days have been reduced to a minimum, today’s test has taken on more importance within the Repsol Honda Team.
Andrea Dovizioso had an intense day of tests planned with his technical team today, as the Italian rider declined to test the new chassis and swingarm during the race weekend which Honda HRC has prepared for him. Together with these chassis and swingarm tests, this Monday he went out with a new engine which they are developing in Japan. Pedrosa’s bike was also fitted with this new engine, with which he completed a couple of series of laps of the Andalucian circuit. Both riders commented that although there are some improvements, it is still too early to be conclusive and race it for the first time.
In the case of the Italian rider, he liked the new chassis very much as it allowed him greater ease into the turns and harder breaking. On the other side of the pit box, Pedrosa dedicated himself to testing out small adjustments to the suspension configuration which he used yesterday in the race, improving the feeling.
The Repsol Honda Team Spanish rider, who had a slight fall without any physical injury at turn 10 – Peluqui- of the Andalucian track due to a loss of grip on the front wheel of his bike, after a big slide at the rear, finished a total of 60 laps, clocking up his best time of the session on lap 5. His fastest time of the day – 1.39’425 seconds – beats his best time of yesterday’s race by three tenths, which in the end was the fastest lap of the race and a new record for the Jerez Circuit.
Andrea Dovizioso, also happy with the work carried out during this day of testing, bade farewell to the Andalucian track with the fifth best time, having completed 71 laps and clocking his fastest time on the 45th. His time today – 1.39’760 sec – beat that which he clocked up in the official practices by 3 tenths.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
“This was a useful day of testing and we spent some time working in detail on suspension adjustments – some of the things we didn’t have the time to test in the pre-season because we were focusing on other issues. We also tried a modified spec engine and collected some information for the development engineers, but it’s too early to say whether it’s a step forward yet because we only had two runs out of the pits with it. The crash was a little strange and I wasn’t expecting it, but the important thing is that I’m not hurt and I can look forward to Le Mans which is a circuit I’ve raced well at before. I’m looking forward to the next round”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
“I’m happy with my lap time today and, although the track conditions were better than yesterday, 39.7 is a good time on the Bridgestone harder option tyre and it’s only two tenths behind the fastest time set with that tyre, so I’m pretty satisfied with that. Our machine lacks a bit of stability so it’s not easy to be consistent but I’m really happy with the new parts Honda has brought here. We tried the new chassis and swingarm which have improved the last part of the braking area and corner entry. The new specification engine has improved the acceleration slightly and we’ll look at the data and decide if we’ll use it in the upcoming”.
