MotoGP Test Losail, Qatar, February 13, 20072007-02-13 18:56The final 'Fly away' MotoGP pre-season test session got underway at the 5.380 km Losail circuit Qatar today, the opening day of a three-day test. All 21 riders contesting the 18-round World Championship series are testing at the same venue for the first time this year. The six Honda RC212V riders, plus Kenny Roberts Jnr aboard the Honda powered Team Roberts KR212V put in a hard but fruitful day in near perfect conditions with temperatures of 23' and very little wind. World Champion Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) was fast from the off holding fastest lap time until just after lunch and eventually ending the day with fifth fastest time as he worked his way through the test programme laid out by the HRC engineers. Hayden refined the settings he used at Phillip Island during the last RC212V test. Working on the chassis, suspension and engine settings the World Champion felt real progress has been made declaring that; "This is the best I've felt on the new bike straight out of the gate." His best lap time of 1m 57.07s was just 0.296s off the best lap time of the day. Hayden's team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, a former three-times world champion in the smaller capacity classes, adopted his typical step-by-step approach to testing. The young Spaniard spent a very positive opening day running through a series of refinements to the base set up of his RC212V setting his best time of the day on the very last lap of his 79 lap stint. The Gresini Honda squad enjoyed mixed fortunes on the opening day of the test. Marco Melandri spent his day chasing a competitive base line setting for his RCV. The Italian tested a range of chassis, suspension and tyre combinations. Melandri ran on race tyres all day focusing on race distance runs. Melandri's team-mate, Spaniard Toni Elias had a less productive day. Elias refined the base set up of his RCV and spent time testing for Bridgestone working hard with the tyre technicians to find tyres to suit his unique riding style. However, Elias is confident that Bridgestone will develop the tyres he needs to be fast in time for the first grand prix. Kenny Roberts Jnr was the fastest Honda powered rider on track today. Riding the Team Roberts KR212V the American former 500cc world champion shaded Champion Hayden by just 0.006s on the time sheets. Working on the new chassis and suspension Team Roberts managed to eradicate the mid-corner handling problems they had experienced at recent test sessions and Robert Jnr goes into tomorrow in confident mood tyre testing for Michelin. Carlos Checa worked on perfecting the base line set up the LCR team established at Phillip Island with Checa putting in 88 laps at consistent times. The Spaniard will concentrate on tyre testing tomorrow. Konica Minolta Honda rider Shinya Nakano feels the team have taken a big step in the right direction. Nakano retained the same basic set up he ran with at the recent Phillip Island test and this allowed the team to concentrate on the overall geometry of the RCV in a bid to further improve the handling characteristics. The three-day test at Qatar is crucial for the teams and riders preparing for the season as the Losail circuit hosts the opening round of the 18 round series, on March 10. Honda rider quotes and lap times. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 57.07s - 82 laps. "This is the best I've felt on the new bike straight out of the gate and I definitely think we're getting the base settings right for me - we didn't have to change too much at all for this track to be semi-close. For most of the day we were going forward which is good because it was nice to see that progress. We're not quite down in those 1m 56s laps where we need to be but we've learned some things that we can build on. There are a lot of good guys in my corner, a lot of good engineers from Honda and a good team around me and I've got to use that to my advantage with getting the bike dialled in. This is an important test because the opening race of the season is right here in Qatar so we've got to be ready to go. Conditions were good, though the day went fast so we'll be looking for two more good days to make a lot more progress." Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 57.73s - 79 laps "We had a good first practice and that's positive because it's important here to be in good shape for the first round of the season. The weather is perfect at this stage - neither hot nor windy - and we will see over the course of the test how much we can improve the bike. Today we were trying to find the limits on the bike and I think it's interesting to ride the 800cc bike here. You can feel that there's less power on the long straight but not into the corners. We also still have two days to test Michelin tyres and choose the best ones for the race". Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 57.760s - 64 laps. "Today we worked on chassis, suspension and tyre testing in order to find the best base on this track. I'm very happy with my bike, I feel comfortable and I have a good feeling. We lapped always with race tyres, focusing on the distance in preparation of the race. At the moment we are not 100 per cent but I'm confident. We are working with Bridgestone technicians to decide the line to follow in preparation of the race". Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 1m 59.400s - 54 laps. "We started with the base of the previous test sessions and we worked on the bike setting and made some tyre testing. We tested several tyres but for the moment we haven't found one for my characteristics, but I'm confident because the Bridgestone technicians are working hard". Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 1m 57.370s - 88 laps "This first day has been quite positive. We are still working to develop the new machine gathering useful data for the season's "kick off". I lapped on the base set-up we used in Australia and I feel satisfied because it worked very well even if this track is completely different from Phillip Island. This means that we found the right direction to go. However there are still a couple of things to fix up. Tomorrow we will focus on the front end testing different tyres". Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 57.850s. "At this time of year in Qatar the temperature is just perfect for testing. Furthermore, we need to thank the Superbike riders who were here up until yesterday for the condition of the track, as it was very good and clean from sand. Thank you! We started today using the settings we found in Phillip Island as a base and continued testing small adjustments to the bike many of the changes made the new Honda RC212V feel better and better. We concentrated on the overall geometry of the bike to try and improve handling still further. Tomorrow we will spend our time testing different Michelin tyres and at the end of the test we will go for that fast lap!" Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR212V: "Not too bad today, much better. We made a step forward since the Phillip Island test. We worked on a lot of suspension and chassis stuff and got the bike to work better in the middle of the corner. We refined the general set up on the latest chassis and we are pretty pleased with things so far. We were fast and set consistent lap times all day. At the end of the day we started testing with Michelin and the stuff they gave us looks pretty promising. We will do more work on tyres tomorrow in combination with various chassis - suspension setting options." MotoGP Official Test: Qatar Day 1 Unofficial Times 1. Colin Edwards, Yamaha - 1m 56.774s. 2. Valentino Rossi, Yamaha - 1m 56.891s. 3. Casey Stoner, Ducati - 1m 56.960s. 4. Kenny Roberts Jnr, Team Roberts KR212V - 1m 57.064s. 5. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda - 1m 57.070s. 6. John Hopkins, Suzuki - 1m 57.350s. 7. Loris Capirossi, Ducati - 1m 57.360s. 8. Carlos Checa, Honda LCR - 1m 57.370s. 9. Alex Barros, Pramac d'Antin Ducati- 1m 57.690s. 10.Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda - 1´57.700s. 11. Randy de Puniet, Kawasaki Racing - 1m 57.730 12. Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda - 1m 57.760s. 13. Alex Hofmann, Pramac d'Antin Ducati - 1m 57.800s. 14. Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda - 1m 57.850s. 15. Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki - 1m 57.900s. 16. Makoto Tamada, Yamaha Tech 3 - 1m 58.408s. 17. Olivier Jacque, Kawasaki Racing - 1m 58.740s. 18. Toni Elias, Gresini Honda - 1m 59.400s. 19. Sylvain Guintoli, Yamaha Tech3 - 1m 59.700s. 20. Shinichi Ito, Ducati TTT - 1m 59.966s. 21. Andrew Pitt, Ilmor GP - 2m 01.667s. 22. Jeremy McWilliams, Ilmor GP - 2m 10.341s. Source: Honda Pro Image Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
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