Repsol Honda Team back in action in Sepang.
Biaggi and Hayden were back in action today (Friday) for the first of a scheduled three-day test at the 5.54km Sepang circuit.
Since the tests here just over two weeks ago the technicians have been building the 2005 Honda RC211Vs in Japan and today was the first time they have been tested by the factory riders in readiness for the 17-round championship that gets underway at Jerez, Spain on April 10th.
Hayden completed 87 laps in the stifling heat (48 degrees ground and 35 degrees air) with team mate Biaggi clicking off 41; his session being interrupted when he slipped from his machine without injury in the morning. The Italians ankle is recovering well from his November supermoto accident, and now admits to it being 85% recovered. The pair suffered a freak accident in the pit lane when they hit each other while entering and exiting their respective garages. Although their machines were damaged, both riders escaped injury.
Max Biaggi,
41 laps.Best lap: 2m 02.60s:
‘We started some important work today, trying and testing new materials. It is a delicate job, it takes time and patience to get to the definitive bike. Today I’m satisfied with the little improvements we have made which all indicate important things for the future. We don’t care about the lap time today as it counts for nothing. The crash this morning happened when I lost the front wheel and the pitlane accident happened when I was leaving the pit garage, Nicky returns to his pit very close to the garages and I didn’t see him.’
Nicky Hayden,
87 laps. Best lap: 2m 02.67s:
‘I started the day just with a shakedown on the two brand new 2005 bikes. They didn’t feel too much different to the last test here a couple of weeks ago but we knew that would be the case. I tried a few suspension changes and some were good but I got into a bit of a rut this afternoon. We knew that, for the first day, we wouldn’t be giving too much focus to any one area of the machine. I’ve got some chassis changes to try tomorrow so I’m sure I can get going better than today. The pitlane incident was one of those things, Max pulled out of his pit garage right in front of me as I was heading back into mine, we hit each other, it was nothing more than an accident.’
