Lap times fall on second day At Sepang
Repsol Honda team mates, Nicky Hayden and Max Biaggi had a productive day in the heat at Sepang again today during the second day of the scheduled three-day test at the 5.54km track in Malaysia.
Both riders are using the 2005-spec RC211V that sees a development in the electronics of the machine as well as changes in the chassis and the engine that Honda hope will help successfully defend the manufacturers world title and win back the riders world title in 2005. Hayden was encouraged by the results from the day. The 23-year-old American completed a long test run and consistently lapped well inside his best lap time from the race here last October. On the other side of the garage Max Biaggi continued to work well with his new team. The experienced Italian is happy with the progress hes making in readiness for the 17-round 2005 championship that will start in just over eight weeks time at Jerez, Spain on April 10th. Max Biaggi, 62 laps. Best lap: 2m 01.50sFriday – 41 laps. Best lap: 2m 02.60s’The fast lap time didn’t really matter yesterday and it doesn’t matter too much today but it’s still good to record the fastest lap of the day for everyone in the team, from the last technician to the first engineer. But we are still at the beginning of a long path and we still have a lot of new parts to try so the hard work will continue tomorrow. I didn’t even try new tyres today – the track is very slippy because of the high temperature and humidity but tomorrow we will try the new tyres from Michelin.’ Nicky Hayden, 69 laps. Best lap: 2m 01.71sFriday – 87 laps. Best lap: 2m 02.67s’I’ve had a much better day today. I gave yesterday’s test a lot of thought last night and came out fresh this morning and put a quick lap in straight away. We’ve made a lot of improvements to the machine set-up today and the new chassis parts certainly are giving the machine more stability and it feels much better on entry into the corners. I put in a run on a race tyre today and was consistently one second faster than my best lap in the race last year. The endurance run was good because I really struggle in the heat at the hot races in Barcelona and Mugello and of course here. I’m confident of getting a faster lap tomorrow, we’ve really started to get the bike working well here.’ Makoto TanakaRepsol Honda Team Manager’We made a lot of progress today and Max Biaggi made a good lap time at the end of the day. Nicky Hayden was again very impressive as he continues to improve. The riders tested new chassis parts today and the result was good. We’ve found some good settings and a good direction which we will now aim to improve upon in the next tests in Australia, Qatar and Spain.’
