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)

“We ended up not too bad but it’d be nicer to be faster on race tyres. To be honest, it’s been a frustrating couple of days here. We got into the 31s about the fourth exit from the pits on the first day and really we haven’t been able to go any faster since then, except with the qualifiers, which were good.

We’ve chased our tail a bit and I haven’t really found a batch of race tyres I like. I struggled a lot when I was here for last year’s race, but I did find something I liked. I didn’t have that option this week, so I can’t say I’m completely happy with the combination of bike, rider and tyres.

We tried the pneumatic-valve engine and the conventional spec engine in the new chassis at this test. We did a lot of tyre testing with Michelin using the conventional engine. The chassis did some good stuff but not enough through this fast stuff here.

We left Sepang last week in a positive way and it’s still early days, there’s a lot of work still to be done. Now we go back to Sepang for two days, we’ve got a few days off and then keep trying to chip away at it.”

MotoGP Test Results

1. Casey Stoner Ducati 1:28.777 (51)
2. Nicky Hayden Honda 1:29.734 (102)
3. James Toseland Yamaha 1:29.754 (89)
4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1:29.780 (90)
5. Colin Edwards Yamaha 1:29.795 (56)
6. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1:30.216 (73)
7. Alex De Angelis Honda 1:30.438 (91)
8. Shinya Nakano Honda 1:30.728 (89)
9. Toni Elias Ducati 1:30.966 (97)
10. Randy De Puniet Honda 1:30.978 (115)
11. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati 1:30.983 (58)
12. Marco Melandri Ducati 1:31.377 (108)
13. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1:31.508 (75)
14. Anthony West Kawasaki 1:31.957 (90)

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.

Conditions stayed stable long enough to do that, which a lot of times in the rain is hard, you know, it’s dry, it’s wet, it’s pouring, it’s deep water, but today it stayed pretty stable so we got to check some stuff. The general feeling in the wet was okay, then in the afternoon it dried out enough to get some dry lap times.

My best time was about the same as I did yesterday, I wasn’t able to improve, though conditions were a little bit cooler and not as good today, so I think that’s a positive. We’re not where we need to be on race pace consistently.

I tried to test a few tyres today but at the moment we’re struggling for traction on the edge. So we need to have a meeting tonight with Michelin and maybe try something completely different. We struggled a bit here when we were here for the race, so we need to definitely address the problem tomorrow.

We get one more day at it and hopefully the weather looks a lot better, so we’ll co me in here and try to make a big step forward.”

Nicky Hayden put in a typically determined day’s work at Phillip Island today, riding an amazing 107 laps of the high-speed Australian circuit aboard his Repsol Honda RC212V. Once again the American tried both Honda’s latest pneumatic-valve engine and the conventional spring engine, focusing on the conventional engine in the afternoon.

Fastest at Sepang last week with qualifying tyres, the 2006 MotoGP World Champion only used race tyres today, making plenty of progress in excellent weather conditions with ambient temperature at 21 degrees and track temperature reaching 40 degrees. Tomorrow he will continue working on chassis and suspension settings and he will commence tyre testing – Phillip Island is a particularly challenging racetrack for tyres.
Nicky Hayden is currently Repsol Honda’s sole rider on track. His team-mate Dani Pedrosa is in Europe recuperating from an operation to fix the broken hand he suffered in Malaysia last week.

Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1′31.226s (lap 96 of 107)

“This is a completely different track to Sepang so we needed to reconfirm what we learned last week. That’s been the plan today, so we’ve been using reference tyres, we’ve not been doing any tyre testing so far, mainly just checking settings.

This morning we checked both engines because the team needs data with the pneumatic valve engine too. The track seems to be in great shape and the weather’s good, so we’ve gotten a lot done.

So far preseason is going well for us but nothing really matters till we get to that first race. I’m just working as hard as I can with the team so I can make the most of the opportunities and hopefully when we get to that race we’ll be ready to make some noise. Michelin is definitely working hard and we’ve seen some progress. Right now we’re positive.”

MotoGP Test Results Day 1 

1. Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech3 1?29.566 (77)
2. Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro 1?30.178 (73)
3. Alex De Angelis Honda Gresini 1?30.688 (70)
4. Andrea Dovizioso JiR Team Scot 1?30.701 (79)
5. James Toseland Yamaha Tech3 1?30.864 (81)
6. Marco Melandri Ducati Marlboro 1?30.869 (99)
7. Shinya Nakano Honda Gresini 1?31.111 (91)
8. Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda 1?31.226 (107)
9. Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki 1?31.274 (82)
10. Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki 1?31.317 (99)
11. Randy De Puniet Honda LCR 1?31.436 (103)
12. John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing 1?31.623 (88)
13. Anthony West Kawasaki Racing 1?31.786 (72)
14. Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1?32.484 (68)

Nicky Hayden completed the first MotoGP tests of 2008 with the fastest lap at Sepang today. The Repsol Honda man rode a stunningly fast lap on qualifiers to top the three-day session. He also set an impressive pace in race tri m, riding his best-ever Sepang lap on race tyres at 2m 01.6s.

The 2006 MotoGP World Champion spent most of the day riding his RC212V equipped with conventional valves after testing Honda’s new pneumatic-valve engine this morning. The Sepang weather was typically tropical today, with ambient temperature at 33 degrees and track temperature at 51 degrees.

Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 2m 00.326s (lap 25 of 77)

“Today’s gone a lot better than the last couple and we’re feeling positive, I feel like I’m a lot closer than I was a year ago here. This morning we checked the pneumatic valve engine, then we just focused on the standard engine and this year’s chassis, working on the general set-up.

“I used qualifiers for my fastest lap and they worked well. After that we did a batch of front tyres because one of my weak points here is that sometimes I struggle when this track gets hot. So I did a batch of tyres at the hottest part of the day to improve on that. We hadn’t really tested any tyres for Michelin here until today and we wanted to do a long run. That run was decent, probably the best thing I’ve done all week. I did the best lap I’ve ever done round here on rac e tyres on lap 18, a 2m 01.6s. At the end of three long days that wasn’t too bad. I used a 16.5 on that run but I’ve also been trying some 16 rears here.

“Now we go to Phillip Island which is quite a different track with some long corners, some high-speed stuff and a lot of changes of direction. The big thing there is tyres so it’ll be really important to do some more tyre work with Michelin there. We will also do some more work with the pneumatic-valve engine. I’ve got faith in Honda, so hopefully they can make us proud. I think it’s going to be a good season, there&rsq uo;s a lot of guys going fast, a lot of guys motivated. It’s an exciting time, everyone’s at zero.”

The 2006 MotoGP World Champion was Repsol Honda’s lone rider today, his team-mate Dani Pedrosa is in Barcelona, Spain, awaiting surgery. The Spaniard broke a bone in his right hand when he fell here yesterday afternoon. Dr Xavier Mir at the Clinica Dexeus is expected to operate on the injury this afternoon. It is not yet known when Pedrosa will be able to ride again.

Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 2m 02.102s (lap 24 of 66)

“We used the standard engine in the morning. I set my fastest lap, then we started using the pneumatic-valve engine after about 25 laps. With that engine the bike did feel more like the prototype I rode last November, I guess because the bike was designed to have that engine, so maybe the extra weight makes it work a bit better.

We did have a few little issues with the engine, it’s got smoother power and more rpm but top speed is a bit down, plus I was coming in every 12 laps to check the system so it wasn’t so easy to get into a rhythm. But I think the pneumatic valves are the way to go because that engine’s got more potential.

We also tested a clutch with the pneumatic-valve engine, plus some setting parts and fuel injection, more engine type of stuff. We stayed on race tyres all day and made a little bit of progress, four tenths or so. We also tested a couple of tyres, I tried a 16 rear but the balance of the bike wasn’t right with that tyre, so we need to look at the data and see what’s happening.

Now we’re going to sit down, talk about it and see which engine we’re going to use tomorrow.”

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.

I didn’t test any tyres today, we just used reference tyres because I wasn’t going fast enough. First we had to get the bike working better. The shoulder’s better, though I still need to get some more strength in it. So that’s day one in the books. Tomorrow we’ll see if we can try the pneumatic engine and test some tyres, we’ve got plenty of work to do and it’s a long way to go to Qatar.”

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

“Again it’s been positive today. We spent a big part of the day on the new RC212V and tried the mahcine with qualifying tyres for the first time. The lap time I did was pretty good and I really didn’t expect to go that much faster than race tyres, so I’m pretty happy. I also did a long run and, although that wasn’t on my favourite tyre, Michelin got some useful information from the run. We also found some good tyres over the three days of the test so it was positive on that front. The one slightly frustrating thing was that I rode the new machine for entire test except for the last hour today and I immediately went faster by about four tenths faster on race tyres which means we’ve got a bit of talking to do. There are still a few issues to iron out with the new engine but Honda knows how to make engines so I’m confident about it. Plus the chassis on this new machine is really good and a big improvement. I guess you could say it’s been a bad year, but it’s certainly not a bad life and so we’ll come back give it everything next season. A big thanks to all the team, sponsors and everyone who’s given me support this year. I’m really excited about coming back in good shape for when things fire up again in Qatar for the night race.”

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.

I think everyone in front of me today used qualifying tyres and as far as the team knew nobody went faster than 1′40.6s on race tyres, which is pretty encouraging because yesterday I was definitely off by a couple of tenths on race tyres. Today we were right in there, the team’s done a good job and we had quite a good day.

We were trying some quite big changes with the chassis set-up today which is what you have to do to learn how the bike reacts and behaves in different conditions. Overall we collected a lot of useful information and hopefully we can keep the progress going tomorrow.”