LAST DAY / MELANDRI LEAVES SEPANG AS THE FASTEST HONDA RIDER
Third and last day of testing for the MotoGP teams, busy
at Sepang in the preparation of the 2006 Championship . The
Fortuna Honda riders spent their day working at the set up
of the bike in order to get the best out of the five-cylinder
990cc. Italian Marco Melandri set the third fastest time of
the day and was the fastest Honda rider, despite the difficulties
found in getting a good set up. Positive day for the Spanish
Toni Elias, who improved his lap time and his feeling with
the bike.
MARCO MELANDRI ( 81 laps, 2’01.12):
“Today we worked with only one bike and we struggled
quite a bit to find a reasonable set up. During lunch time
my mechanics did an incredible job and in the afternoon my
feeling with the bike improved. Unfortunately the research
of a good setting took a lot of time and in the end I couldn’t
do a race simulation
At the moment we are not using all the potential of the RC211V.
I’m happy that we have another test next week so that
we can continue working on the bike. I’m confident and
I look forward to test in Australia.”
TONI ELIAS (70 laps 2’02.26):
“I’m happy because every day we do a step forward.
Today I improved my lap time with race tyres while I still
have to work with qualifying tyres. In fact, this afternoon
I didn’t succeed to use the qualifying tyre at his best,
As far as my adaptation to the bike, I can say that my feeling
with the bike improves day by day. I’m confident and
I look forward to next test session. In Australia we will
continue working in the same direction, completing as many
kilometres as possible.”
Today it was the third and last day of the 2006 first test
session. Tomorrow the Fortuna Honda Team will fly to Australia,
where the second test session is scheduled starting from Tuesday
, the 31st of January.
UNOFFICIAL TIMES
1) Sete Gibernau (Sp/Ducati) 2'01.03
2) Loris Capirossi (Ita/Ducati) 2'01.08
3) Marco Melandri (Ita/Honda) 2'01.12
4)Daniel Pedrosa (Sp/Honda) 2'01.56
5) Valentino Rossi (Ita/Yamaha) 2'01.60
6) Nicky Hayden (Usa/ Honda) 2'01.69
7) Shinya Nakano (Jap/Kawasaki) 2'01.78
8) Randy De Puniet (Fr/Kawasaki) 2'02.18
9) Toni Elias (Sp/Honda) 2’02.26
10) Vermeullen (Aus/Suzuki) 2’02.30
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