Dovizioso fastest Honda rider at start of final preseason test

2009-03-28 12:13
Factory Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was Honda's top performer at Jerez today, the Italian seventh fastest overall, 1.030 seconds behind pace-setter Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). Lorenzo was 0.3235 seconds inside the track record established by Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa during last year's Jerez GP race.

This weekend's two-day Jerez test is MotoGP's first European outing of 2009 and also the final test session before the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on April 10/11/12. It is thus a vital two days for all riders and teams, especially considering this winter's reduced offseason testing programme, so this morning's heavy rainfall wasn't exactly welcome. But conditions dried up around lunchtime, allowing Honda's six MotoGP riders to make useful progress at the technically challenging Spanish circuit, all of them setting their best times at the very end of the day. Ambient temperature reached 16 degrees, track temperature 20 degrees.

Dovizioso had a busy day, with a good number of upgrade parts to put through their paces. The 23 year-old Italian, looking forward to his first MotoGP race on a factory bike next month, announced that he was happy with improvements made to the overall balance of his factory RC212V. Dovizioso and his crew also worked at enhancing feel from the rear tyre to further improve corner-exit performance.

San Carlo Honda Gresini pairing Alex de Angelis and Toni Elias were just a fraction of a second slower than Dovizioso. De Angelis was satisfied with his day's work, improving both turning and traction performance to establish a good base for tomorrow's final day of testing. The San Marino rider did suffer a tumble, but only after he had run wide onto the still-wet trackside grass.

Elias is delighted with the engine performance of his RC212V V4 engine, but is still looking to improve rear-end performance. The Spaniard's spectacular riding style doesn't put a lot of heat into the rear tyre, so he is working at adapting machine set-up to increase the load to the rear end.

Frenchman Randy de Puniet continued to move forward with his LCR RC212V, testing tyres and focusing on getting maximum performance out of a harder compound Bridgestone. Like Dovizioso, de Puniet used a different brand of tyre last season so has had to work hard to adapt his riding style and machine settings to suit the Japanese tyres. Tomorrow de Puniet will shift his focus towards engine mapping and a long-distance tyre test.

Yuki Takahashi continued climbing his MotoGP learning curve today. The former 250 GP winner is Honda's sole MotoGP rookie this year, and the Japanese is still focusing on learning his machine, rather than chasing fast lap times. Takahashi started testing at lunch time, once the rain had gone, focusing on front-end set-up of his RC212V. When testing ended at 6pm he declared himself very happy with the progress made. Tomorrow he will focus his attention on the rear end, working to further improve corner-exit performance.

Japanese star Kousuke Akiyoshi is at Jerez this weekend, riding as substitute for Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa who is still recuperating from the left wrist and knee injuries he sustained during testing at Losail, Qatar, earlier this month. Former Suzuka Eight Hours winner Akiyoshi (34) is helping the team continue their preseason testing work, evaluating various parts and set-up options which will help Pedrosa on his return. Pedrosa's target is to return to action at Losail in two weeks' time.

Highlight of tomorrow is the 45 minute official 'qualifying' session, televised throughout the world, during which riders compete to set the fastest one-off lap time to win a high-performance sports car.


Honda rider quotes and lap times

Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 40.821s, on lap 74 of 74
"Despite the rain this morning the track dried quite quickly so we could make good use of the day. That's good because Honda has brought a lot of new material here and we've got a lot of things to test. In general the package has improved and we've made progress on both the engine and chassis side. Obviously we want to take another step to make sure we're fully competitive at the first race, so we're planning to have another good day tomorrow."

Alex de Angelis, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 40.900s, on lap 75 of 75
"At the start of the day we had a few problems finding traction and also getting the bike turned in tight corners. The team made some modifications and the bike felt better, so I was pushing to improve my lap times when I crashed. Basically I just ran a little wide on the exit of the corner, touched the grass at the side of the track, which was still wet from this morning, so I lost the front and couldn't keep it upright. Luckily I was unhurt and I was determined to get back because things had just started to improve for us. The guys did a great job to set up my other bike quickly and I was able to get back on the pace. Now we have a great base to work from tomorrow."

Toni Elias, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 41.049s, on lap 80 of 80
"I'm not completely satisfied with today because we haven't improved as much as I would have liked. We're over a second off the fastest guys and I want to be much closer. We have a great engine — it is really, really good — but we have to make the chassis work much better. We're struggling to get enough heat into the rear tyre to gain the traction we need and it is something we have been working on all preseason. The new tyre restrictions haven't helped us out with this, but it is down to us to adapt. We only have one day of testing left before the start of the season so we want to try and make the most of every available minute tomorrow."

Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP: 1m 41.168s, on 77 of 77
"It was a good day and we did a good job, even if the position is not so brilliant. However this is our first outing in Europe and we had to put kilometres on the clock to clear up some points. I am pretty sure we can improve our lap time tomorrow because today I lapped with a hard compound rear tyre. Honestly our target is different: we expect to qualify between the 6th and 10th position. We have got a good level and I am aware that Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo are very fast but the following positions are still open. I am getting used to these tyres and think we will keep on working on engine mapping in tomorrow's last day of testing. We also kept one tyre to test and will do a race simulation after the BMW competition."

Yuki Takahashi, Scot Racing Team Honda: 1m 41.362s, on lap 73 of 73
"The weather was not so good at the start of the day, so we stayed in the pit until almost one o'clock. I wasn't so happy about that but the weather got better and we were able to start testing. I am very happy with what we did today. I still need understand this bike, it's my first year in MotoGP, so I want to ride many laps and try many things. Today we tried many things with the front end — suspension, weight distribution and so on. I think we found a good setting for the future. Tomorrow we want to focus on testing different things with the rear end. The priority is to continue getting better, step by step."

Kousuke Akiyoshi, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 42.286s, on lap 69 of 69
"This was quite a good first day. Though it rained in the morning, we managed to do some work on wet settings, which was useful. It's my third time on this machine and there is still a lot of power to get used to! When the circuit dried we were able to begin working on a range of engine and chassis settings and the progress was pretty good, taking one step at a time. I'm quite happy with my lap time from today, and we'll be looking to improve that further tomorrow."


Free Practice Nr1 Classification times

Nr / Rider / Nat / Team / Bike / Time
1 / Jorge LORENZO / SPA / Fiat Yamaha Team / YAMAHA / 1'39.791
2 / Valentino ROSSI / ITA / Fiat Yamaha Team / YAMAHA / 1'39.861
3 / Casey STONER / AUS / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI / 1'39.906
4 / Chris VERMEULEN / AUS / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / SUZUKI / 1'40.572
5 / Colin EDWARDS / USA / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / YAMAHA / 1'40.579
6 / Loris CAPIROSSI / ITA / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / SUZUKI / 1'40.650
7 / Andrea DOVIZIOSO / ITA / Repsol Honda Team / HONDA / 1'40.821
8 / Alex DE ANGELIS / RSM / San Carlo Honda Gresini / HONDA / 1'40.900
9 / Nicky HAYDEN / USA / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI / 1'40.987
10 / Toni ELIAS / SPA / San Carlo Honda Gresini / HONDA / 1'41.049
11 / James TOSELAND / GBR / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / YAMAHA / 1'41.122
12 / Marco MELANDRI / ITA / Hayate Racing Team / KAWASAKI / 1'41.160
13 / Randy DE PUNIET / FRA / LCR Honda MotoGP / HONDA / 1'41.168
14 / Mika KALLIO / FIN / Pramac Racing / DUCATI / 1'41.226
15 / Yuki TAKAHASHI / JPN / Scot Racing Team MotoGP / HONDA / 1'41.362

Fastest Lap: Jorge LORENZO 1'39.791 159.561 Km/h Lap: 97
Circuit Record Lap ani PEDROSA 1'40.116 159.043 Km/h 2008
Circuit Best Lap: Jorge LORENZO 1'38.189 162.164 Km/h 2008

Source: Honda Pro Image

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