Sepang Day 3: Hayden fastest on Honda

Nicky Hayden completed the first MotoGP tests of 2008 with the fastest lap at Sepang today. The Repsol Honda man rode a stunningly fast lap on qualifiers to top the three-day session. He also set an impressive pace in race trim, riding his best-ever Sepang lap on race tires at 2m 01.6s. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion spent most of the day riding his RC212V equipped with conventional valves after testing Honda’s new pneumatic-valve engine this morning. The Sepang weather was typically tropical today, with ambient temperature at 33 degrees and track temperature at 51 degrees.

Team-mate Dani Pedrosa underwent surgery yesterday in Barcelona to fix the right hand injury he suffered when he crashed here at Sepang on January 22. The Spaniard was diagnosed to have suffered a fracture in the second metacarpal and three diaphysary fragments, the bones in the middle section of the metacarpian. The operation, which fixed the damage with a titanium plate and seven screws, was carried out by Dr Xavier Mir at the USP Institut Universitari Dexeus. The usual recovery period for such an injury is six weeks, but Dr Mir believes Pedrosa should be able to return to riding sooner than that, if all goes well with his recuperation. Hayden resumes testing at Phillip Island, Australian next week, on January 30, 31 and February 1.

Nicky Hayden
“Today’s gone a lot better than the last couple and we’re feeling positive, I feel like I’m a lot closer than I was a year ago here. This morning we checked the pneumatic valve engine, then we just focused on the standard engine and this year’s chassis, working on the general set-up. I used qualifiers for my fastest lap and they worked well. After that we did a batch of front tires because one of my weak points here is that sometimes I struggle when this track gets hot. So I did a batch of tires at the hottest part of the day to improve on that.

We hadn’t really tested any tires for Michelin here until today and we wanted to do a long run. That run was decent, probably the best thing I’ve done all week. I did the best lap I’ve ever done round here on race tires on lap 18, a 2m 01.6s. At the end of three long days that wasn’t too bad. I used a 16.5 on that run but I’ve also been trying some 16 rears here.

Now we go to Phillip Island which is quite a different track with some long corners, some high-speed stuff and a lot of changes of direction. The big thing there is tires so it’ll be really important to do some more tire work with Michelin there. We will also do some more work with the pneumatic-valve engine. I’ve got faith in Honda, so hopefully they can make us proud. I think it’s going to be a good season, there’s a lot of guys going fast, a lot of guys motivated. It’s an exciting time, everyone’s at zero."

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