Repsol Honda Team – Sepang Test Day 2

Repsol riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa both improved their lap times at Sepang today as the first of the year’s three-day MotoGP test sessions continued at the 5.548 km (3.447 miles) Malaysian venue. The factory Honda riders worked through an extensive programme of tests aimed at further developing the prototype RC212V that will campaign the 2007 season.

World Champion Nicky Hayden tried various combinations of front tire constructions and fork settings today, honing the feel from the new 800cc machine. His team also worked through some fuel injection options as they tailored the power delivery for the demanding Sepang lap. The 25-year-old American set a best lap of 2m.02.948s today, the first time the new RC212V has dipped below the 2m 03s mark here, and an improvement of 0.465s over Hayden’s best yesterday.

Dani Pedrosa focused on a variety of set-up configurations, working on the chassis, suspension and engine mappings. Though the 21-year-old Spaniard had a slow-speed fall at the left-hand turn nine, he too was able to go quicker, setting a lap time of 2m 03.098s, 0.522s below his best from yesterday.

Tomorrow sees the conclusion of this test before the Team packs the crates and heads for Phillip Island in Australia for another important three-day test, starting on Tuesday next week.

Nicky Hayden Best lap time: 2m 02.948s – 82 laps
“We actually learned quite a lot about how the new bike works today and we improved by almost half a second so it’s nice to see some progress. We weren’t testing new parts from HRC, just working with suspension, wheelbase, springs – general settings stuff to try and get the bike a little bit quicker. We definitely improved learned some more about how the bike works and reacts to different settings and conditions. We’re still some way off where we need to be though, so we’ve got to keep our heads down and keep working really hard."

Dani Pedrosa Best lap time: 2m 03.098 – 70 laps
“Today we worked hard on many different ways to improve the bike. With testing there are always some things that work and some that don’t work so it was a useful day even though we didn’t set a very fast lap time. Unfortunately I made a small mistake on the brakes into the slow left-hander at turn nine – I was a little off-line and lost the front, but it wasn’t a big crash, just a human mistake. Tomorrow we will try to go a little quicker and we’ll also be working with Michelin on some tire testing."