THE GRESINI HONDA RIDERS IMPROVE THE PACE AT PHILLIP ISLAND
Marco Melandri and Toni Elias were back on track today as
the second MotoGP test of 2007 resumed at Phillip Island,
Australia. The fine weather allowed the Gresini Honda riders
to continue the development of the bike. They both improved
on the race pace and lap time as they worked on suspensions,
chassis and Bridgestone tyre testing.
 Both
Marco and Toni did a great job and completed an impressive
99 laps for the Italian rider, 90 for the Spaniard. In particular,
Melandri found a good feeling with the bike from the beginning
and a good race pace that allowed him to carry out the tyre
testing programme with very positive results.
His team mate, Toni Elias, improved his lap time of 6 tenths
from yesterday and was more confident. He tested many tyres
and found a good solution for his characteristics.
MARCO MELANDRI (99 laps, 1.30.70): "I'm
quite satisfied. I like the bike and today we focused on tyre
testing. We completed an impressive 99 laps. We tested many
tyres and now we have decided the line to follow. I didn't
improve too much my lap time on a single lap but the race
pace was good. In the morning we started with yesterday setting
and I had a good feeling from the beginning, then, during
the day, we tested some different set up solutions but we
didn't got the results we wanted, this slowed down the work
programme so I couldn't make further improvements in the lap
time. From a physical point, the 800cc is quite demanding
as the old 1000, in fact it is faster in the corner but it
is has the same weight of the 1000cc".
TONI ELIAS (90 laps, 1.31.40): "This
morning we struggled a bit but then we found a good solution
that allowed us to make a small step forward. We tested several
tyres and found one that is good to my characteristics, this
allowed me to improve also my feeling with the bike. Tomorrow
we will keep on working in this direction and further improvements
are expected. In fact it's very important to create a good
base and find a good compromise for the Honda-Bridgestone
package".
UNOFFICIAL LAPTIMES
1. Alex Barros, D'Antin Ducati 1m 30.01s
2. Loris Capirossi, Marlboro Ducati: 1m 30.34s.
3. Casey Stoner, MarlboroDucati: 1m 30.39s.
4. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 30.45s.
5. Alex Hofmann, D'Antin Ducati: 1m 30.60s.
6. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 30.61s.
7. Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 30.70s.
8. Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 1m 30.84s.
9. Chris Vermeulen, Rizla Suzuki: 1m 31.19s.
10. Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 31.35s.
11. Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 1m 31.40s.
12. Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR212V: 1m 31.55s..
13. John Hopkins, Rizla Suzuki: 1m 31.63s
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