The Repsol Honda Team had a positive start to the second Official MotoGP test in 2012 in Malaysia.
Honda factory riders Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa topped the time sheets at the end of the first day both happy with the feeling they had with their 1000cc machine.
A thunderstorm stopped the activity on track early in the afternoon, and Dani took the opportunity to ride a few laps on the RC213V in wet conditions for the first time while team mate Casey chose to remain in the garage instead and discuss testing plans for the second day with his crew.
The current MotoGP World Champion has been working on various set ups and he set the best lap of the day with a time of 2’01.761 on lap 8 of 16 completed.
Dani focused on the chassis geometry, rider position and power delivery of the new engine and finished as the second fastest rider of the day with 2’02.005. On his last run, the Spanish rider had to stop on track for an engine problem that technicians will analyse tonight.
Dani Pedrosa,
2nd at 0.244 sec., 36 laps, 200 km.
“It was a good test for us, we made a couple of good runs. The track was very dirty at the beginning of the practice and you could feel the grip level was not so good, but it’s been improving little by little during the day and we could work through our testing program. It was much warmer than in the last test; after the first run I was sweating more than in the three days we came here last time! Today we did some tests on the engine, to see how can we manage the power delivery, and also worked on the chassis. Also, on the rider position to work on the balance and it was positive. In the afternoon I did some laps in the rain, but on my second run it started to dry up quickly, so we finished earlier. On my last run, I had a small issue, I saw a red light on the dashboard, so I took the clutch and stopped. We have to analyse now what it was”.
Casey Stoner,
1st – 2:01.761, 16 laps, 89 km.
“It was really hard to leave Switzerland, Ally woke up for a feed at the same time as I was leaving for the airport and I didn’t really want to leave! The first day of testing has gone well, we started off where we left last time but the track conditions have been a little worse. We have a some work to do, this morning we managed to compare a few things back to back, we’ve tried a new set of brake disks to try and reduce the brake fade that I’ve been having at the last test so that’s been an improvement. We’re trying a few other things with set up, to shorten the wheelbase and get a little more traction. We have a couple of things we can try to change the stiffness and also move the weight around a little bit to try and upset the chatter and reduce the frequency. This afternoon I have no doubt we would have gone a second or a second and a half faster, but the rain came out and the track didn’t dry up enough to warrant going out so we’ll wait until tomorrow”.
