Repsol MotoGP tests, Estoril
Day one of one
REPSOL HONDA MEN MAKE MORE PROGRESS
Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden put in
another day’s good work at sunny Estoril today, testing
Michelin tyres, fine-tuning machine setup and evaluating new
chassis parts.
The main focus of the post-Portuguese Grand Prix session
was tyre testing, both riders trying a variety of different
compounds. Joint World Championship leader Pedrosa used qualifying
tyres to clock the fastest lap of the day while Hayden preferred
to concentrate on riding in race trim with race tyres, recording
the fastest lap of the day on race tyres and improving on
his best lap during yesterday’s race. The day also gave
the RC212V riders the chance to experiment with different
settings options, with a view to the upcoming Chinese Grand
Prix, and evaluate new chassis parts which offered promising
performance.
The Chinese GP, round four of the 18-race 2008 MotoGP series,
takes place at Shanghai on May 2/3/4.
Dani Pedrosa, fastest lap: 1m 36.455s ( 68 laps)
“It’s been another positive day of testing. We
focused mostly on testing tyres with Michelin, both race tyres
and qualifying tyres, because I needed to improve my performance
on qualifiers. The day’s work has helped us prepare
for the Chinese GP and further improve our base setup. We
also did some work on the chassis and suspension to improve
front-end feeling during hard braking, because this aspect
of performance is particularly important at Shanghai, and
we also worked on the electronics.”
Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 36.928s (111 laps)
“Everything went pretty smooth today. We worked mainly
on improving the race setup to get the bike more stable on
the brakes, because there’s a lot of hard braking at
Shanghai. We improved our race pace here, I think we were
fastest on race tyres today, so we’re happy about that.
In the afternoon we did some tyre testing with Michelin and
that went pretty well. I'm feeling confident, the bike is
working well and my team have done a great job here, doing
a day-and-night shift to give me a good bike after I bent
my race bike yesterday, so a big thank you to them. I’m
looking forward to China and getting a positive result.”
Lap times
1. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) 1’36.455
2. Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) 1’36.707
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Jir Scot team) 1’36.791
4. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) 1’36.928
5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3) 1’37.145
6. Randy De Puniet (Lcr Honda) 1’37.146
7. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) 1’37.330
8. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) 1’37.617
9. Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda) 1’37.725
10. James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3) 1’37.767
11. Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) 1’37.781
12. Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda) 1’37.782
13. John Hopkins (Kawasaki) 1’38.023
14. Toni Elias (Alice team) 1’38.695
15. Anthony West (Kawasaki) 1’39.695
16. Sylvain Giuntoli (Alice Team) 1’39.223
17. Marco Meandri (Marlboro Ducati) 1’39.725
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