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By Sandra, January 22, 2008

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.

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By Sandra, November 16, 2007

The Repsol Honda Team again dodged the rain at Sepang in Malaysia today as they continued machine development work in preparation for the 2008 season. A wet track in the morning delayed the start of testing and it was 12.30pm before Nicky Hayden ventured out to resume the engine comparison work he began yesterday aboard the 2007 RC212V. Once complete, the 26-year-old American spent the rest of the afternoon lapping on the 2008 machine, working on engine settings and testing front tyre options in conjunction with Michelin.

The 2006 World Champion declared himself satisfied with progress today having recorded a fastest lap time of 2m 02.800s on race tyres, a promising pace which put him within half a second of his fastest race lap in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang in October. Hayden also experienced the Malaysian wildlife at close quarters today when his knee collided with an unfortunate snake at Turn 11 of the 5.548km (3.447-mile) circuit. The Repsol Honda rider emerged unscathed from the encounter but the snake was not so lucky. A final day of testing takes place here tomorrow.

Nicky Hayden

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