The Repsol Honda Team was back in action at Sepang today following MotoGP’s traditional winter break. MotoGP rider Nicky Hayden got to grips with the latest version of Honda’s RC212V in typically tropical Sepang conditions, with ambient temperature reaching 35 degrees and track temperature 56 degrees.
2006 MotoGP World Champion Hayden spent the day getting a feel for the latest RC212V, riding more laps than anyone else and setting the eighth fastest lap. This is the first time that the 26-year-old has ridden a MotoGP bike since he had surgery to fix a lingering right-shoulder injury on December 1.
Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 2m 02.558s (lap 64 of 85)
“It’s good to be back. Coming in here yesterday it was pretty cool because I had a line of mechanics and two brand new HRC factory GP bikes waiting on me, every nut and bolt was brand new, and to me that’s pretty cool.
Today didn’t go the best at the start. The chassis feels different to the prototype I tested last November. It took me a while to get a good feel from the front, though towards the end of the day we made some progress, doing some geometry stuff and a little bit of suspension. Click here to read more
1. Casey Stoner AUS Marlboro Ducati
3. Alex De Angelis RSM Honda Gresini
4. Andrea Dovizioso ITA JIR Team Scot Honda
5. Colin Edwards USA Yamaha Tech 3
7. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki
13. Anthony West AUS Kawasaki Racing Team
14. Randy De Puniet FRA Honda LCR
21. John Hopkins USA Kawasaki Racing Team 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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