REPSOL HONDA TEAM CONTINUE TO PERFORM IN SEPANG

2011-02-22 10:24
The Repsol Honda riders enjoyed a strong return to the track today occupying the top two slots with all three riders in the top five, as testing resumed at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia. The main purpose of this second test will be to work on the breaking stability issue that surfaced in the first test, as well as further development of the 2011 RC212V.

Casey Stoner resumed testing with the same set-up he had on the final day in the first test. He spent the day alternating between the two chassis options and making comparison work to achieve the best set-up.

Dani Pedrosa also dedicated the first day back working on chassis set-up, along with various electronic mappings.

Andrea Dovizioso worked on engine brake and electronics. In the afternoon, he tried a modified clutch and finished the day in fifth place after also completing a busy tyre testing schedule.

CASEY STONER – 1st - 2.00.987
"We had a really good day today, from the beginning I felt more comfortable with the bike again, like I understood the bike a little better. We managed to work on set-up but we are still doing a chassis comparison, finding strong points and weak points on both. It's difficult to choose one or the other, whatever set-up we throw at them we seem to be able to run pretty similar lap times. We're very happy with the progress we made today and everything and everybody seems to be working well".

DANI PEDROSA – 2nd - 2.01.360
"We made the most of the test today which is a good job because it looks like tomorrow we will get some rain. In the morning, we focused on some different electronic mappings to improve the entering and exit of the corners and in the afternoon we did some set-up modifications on the chassis to improve the stability on braking. The track temperature was high at the middle of the day and the track was quite slippery but we did a good test and tomorrow we will work on smaller details. Also, physically my shoulder felt better on the bike than in the first test. I had two more weeks and I've become stronger from training, so my condition is getting better".

ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 5th - 2.01.747
"I'm really happy about how we have started this second test. Honda engineers have made a very good job on the engine brake with the electronic system to improve the feeling on the rear and these are really good because I have to say that it was our main problem last year and we couldn't make such a big step forward as we did today. We have decreased the chattering compared to the first test and the stability on the rear, so I'm very satisfied. We were able to be fast from the beginning and, even we were not looking for a lap time today, we tried 3 different tyre compounds and we had a good pace with all of them".

Source: Repsol Honda Team

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