Motegi MotoGP Test – Day 2

The Repsol Honda Team completed its second day of testing at Motegi today with Nicky Hayden on top as he gathered more valuable data ahead of the final three races of the 2007 season. The Team continued its evaluation of Michelin’s latest tire technology along with further tests of a new fairing and clutch parts. When the track closed at 4.45pm, Hayden had completed another 89 laps and shaved his fastest Motegi lap time down to 1m 47.277s – a useful improvement of 0.617s over yesterday.

After two races on successive weekends, followed by this two-day test, the hard-working Repsol Honda squad now takes a breath before its next intercontinental adventure. The back-to-back Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix take place on October 14 and October 21, with the final race of the season at Valencia, Spain scheduled for November 4.

Nicky Hayden Best lap time: 1m 47.277s – 89 laps
“Well, we almost had Motegi to ourselves – there weren’t a lot of guys going around out there. We did a lot more work today, testing the new fairing and some clutch parts. It was not so much parts we might be using this year but more likely some items for next season. It went pretty well and we were able to start stringing the 1m 47s laps together and I got down a lot deeper into the 47s than I was able to over the race weekend. We also tested some Michelins and I found a front tire that was an improvement for me. With the tire rule it’s always going to be a bit of a gamble deciding if you want to put something new into your allocation though, especially at Phillip Island because you’ve got be ready for everything with the changeable weather there. Anyway, a big thanks to the team for staying here and working hard again – right now we need to make all the progress we can. Now we get to head home, which doesn’t sound like a bad place to be. The last few weeks have been pretty hectic so it’s time to just chill out for a while and wait it out until Friday morning at Phillip Island where we’ll get another crack at these boys. We’ve got three more chances and we’ll being going all out."

Unofficial lap times

Pos Rider Team Time
1 Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda Team 1m 47.277s
2 Kousuke Akiyoshi Rizla Suzuki Team 1m 48.040s
3 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 48.141s
4 Tadayuki Okada HRC Test Rider 1m 49.062s
5 Nobuatsu Aoki Suzuki Test Rider 1m 50.211s