The 2006 MotoGP world champion and his Repsol Honda team say goodbye to the trainings in Australia and head again to Malaysia to continue with the next week tests.
Nicky Hayden and Repsol Honda completed their second 2008 pre season test today, the American ending this Phillip Island session with the second fastest lap time. After yesterday’s rainfall, today’s conditions were perfect: sunny with ambient temperature at 1 9 to 22 degrees and track temperature at 35 degrees.
Hayden and his hard-working crew dedicated the day to fine-tuning chassis set-up and evaluating Michelin race tyres, though like most other riders he did his best lap on qualifying tyres. The team will continue its pre season work at Sepang, Malaysia, next Tuesday and Wednesday, February 5 and 6.
Nicky Hayden was the team’s lone ride throughout this test, team-mate Dani Pedrosa recuperating in Europe from a hand injury sustained at Sepang last week. The date for Pedrosa’s return to action has yet to be fixed.
Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 29.734s (lap 71 of 102) Click here to read more
Nicky Hayden took advantage of an excellent opportunity to test the new RC212V in the wet on Phillip Island
Morning rainfall at Phillip Island today gave Nicky Hayden the opportunity to evaluate his 2008 Repsol Honda RC212V for the first time in the rain. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion took to the wet track at 11am, tak ing the opportunity to get a feel for the V4 in low-grip conditions. The rain stopped at lunch time but the track wasn’t dry enough to continue with dry track testing until 3.40pm when Hayden returned to action on slicks.
Hayden had a very productive day and was happy with the bike’s performance in the rain. His dry-track pace was similar to yesterday’s despite cooler conditions and less traction following the rainfall. Tomorrow he will continue working on chassis settings and testing more tyres.
Nicky Hayden - fastest lap: 1m 31.373s (lap 71 of 72)
“You know, we get a lot more dry races than wet, so the dry’s more important, but we’ve got to be ready for everything, so today was useful. We were able to check the bike in the wet and make a few little adjustments. Click here to read more
Nicky Hayden also had a profitable final day and he too impressed on qualifiers, setting a time of 1m 38.848s on the 2008 RC212V, which was the quickest lap achieved on the new machine over the three-day test. The 2006 World Champion also completed a long run of 24 laps in order to test the durability of Michelin’s latest batch of race rubber. Hayden then clocked some quick laps with a final run on the 2007 machine and finished the test in positive mood as he heads home to America for the winter break.
After a long 2007 season the Repsol Honda Team will now enjoy some well-earned time off over Christmas before the MotoGP winter test schedule begins again on January 22 at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.
Nicky Hayden Fastest lap: 1m 38.848s – 82 laps Click here to read more
1. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1’38.562
2. Nicky Hayden Honda 1’38.848
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1’39.464
4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1.39.747
5. Shinya Nakano Honda 1’40.121
6. Colin Edwards Yamaha 1’40.184
7. Alex de Angelis (Honda) 1’40.185
8. James Toseland Yamaha 1’40.213 Click here to read more
Nicky Hayden had a productive day as he continued to develop the RC212V at the final test of the year before the MotoGP winter testing ban comes into effect on December 1. The 2006 World Champion chose not to run on qualifying rubber today as he and his crew analysed the effects of various changes to chassis set-up.
Nicky Hayden’s quickest lap of 1′40.692s on race tyres was an improvement of 0.3s over yesterday and the 26-year-old American was only 0.04s behind Pedrosa’s best on race rubber. The test continues for one final day tomorrow before the 2007 MotoGP programme finally grinds to a close.
Nicky Hayden
“I think we picked up where we left off yesterday and the test went quite well again. We didn’t work any miracles out there but we chipped away at the times and made some improvements. I wasn’t a lot faster today but I was able to take a little bit off the lap time and was certainly more consistent in my pace than before. Click here to read more
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