Honda – GP Zero | Valencia
- From: TRS Media | Published: March 29th, 2009 - 7:19 pm
Honda’s six MotoGP riders completed their off season testing at Jerez today, allowing them to look forward to next month’s long-awaited Qatar season opener, the first of 17 races for the 2009 World Championship.
Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was once again the fastest Honda man, the Italian running seventh quickest on his factory RC212V during this afternoon’s 45-minute ‘qualifying’ session, televised around the world and topped by Casey Stoner (Ducati). The outing was briefly red flagged, after Briton James Toseland (Yamaha) fell heavily, suffering concussion. The track was then soaked by a rain shower with five minutes of the 45 minutes remaining, spoiling some riders’ plans to complete the session with their fastest run of the day. Conditions were cooler than yesterday, with ambient temperature at 13 degrees and track temperature at 19 degrees.
Still working to extract maximum performance from his RC212V, Dovizioso announced himself satisfied with these two days of testing and is now very much looking forward to making his race debut as a factory MotoGP rider. The Italian rode a lot of laps today, making important improvements to power delivery and stability, even though the rain cost him crucial dry track time. Dovizioso made the most of the rain anyway, venturing out on the wet track during the final two hours of the day. He recorded the fastest lap time during this period, clocking a 1m 51.488s on a drying track.
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Elias ended the 45 minute ‘qualifying’ session less than a tenth of a second slower than Dovizioso, but the Spaniard wasn’t happy because he knows he can go faster. Elias and his crew have been working at adapting machine set-up to get more heat into the rear tire, but have been unable to find a solution here, despite their best efforts. They are optimistic that they will be able to get on top of the problem at the very different Qatar track. Despite the difficulties, Elias’ RC212V recorded the fastest top speed at Jerez today.
De Puniet was happy with the work he did with his LCR Honda crew today. The Frenchman worked at getting the most out of his RC212V on used tires to ensure that he can perform well in the all-important later stages of races. He was 13th during the 45-minute televised outing, but knows he would have been faster if he hadn’t made a minor error during his quickest lap. De Puniet had planned to do a race simulation during the final two hours of the day but the rain spoiled that plan, so he did a couple of runs on rain tires instead.
MotoGP rookie Yuki Takahashi continued to improve on his Scot Racing Team RC212V, the young Japanese rider cutting a further half a second off his best Saturday lap time. After concentrating on front-end settings yesterday, Takahashi and his technicians worked mostly on the rear end of the machine, looking to further improve performance through corners and on corner exits. Takahashi spent his final day of preseason testing thinking more about improving machine set-up for the first race, rather than worrying too much about recording ultra-quick lap times.
De Angelis had hoped to run closer to the front this afternoon but the knock-on effects of yesterday’s tumble hampered his plans. The crash crucially used up one of the rear tires in his tire allocation, forcing him to run second-hand rubber this morning when he was aiming to push the limits in search of a better set-up. Like his San Carlo Honda Gresini team-mate, de Angelis wanted more heat in the rear tire of his RC212V, today’s cooler conditions not helping matters.
Kousuke Akiyoshi, riding as substitute for the injured Dani Pedrosa, made a valuable contribution to Repsol Honda’s weekend, the Japanese rider focusing on making improvements to power delivery and chassis balance. Akiyoshi was looking forward to doing his very best during the televised 45 minutes but his hopes were dashed when he slid off his RC212V at the hairpin.
Pedrosa is currently working hard at recuperating from the left wrist and knee injuries he suffered when he crashed during testing at Qatar earlier this month. The Spaniard is aiming to be ready for action when the MotoGP World Championship returns to Qatar for the season-opening GP.
The night-time Qatar Grand Prix takes place under floodlights at the Losail racetrack outside the capital of Doha on April 10/11/12. MotoGP then heads further east for the Japanese GP at Motegi on April 24/25/26 before returning to Jerez for the first race of the European season on May 1/2/3.
Honda rider quotes and lap times
Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 40.168s, on lap 51 of 77 “During these two days of testing the machine has improved quite a lot, especially the stability and power delivery which were two important areas we were working on. My lap times on paper look reasonably good on their own, but if you compare them with Casey’s, the gap we need to close is still quite big. After the 45-minute shoot-out it started raining and this spoiled our programme for the afternoon, so we still have some things to try in dry conditions which might move us further forward. As far as the wet set-up, my feeling with the bike and tires is good and I’m happy about this. Now I’m looking forward to getting to Qatar for the first race.”
Toni Elias, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 40.266s, on lap 42 of 43 “It was more difficult today because of the cooler temperatures but it is the same for everybody and the fact is that even though the track was cold, Stoner was hot! We’re not happy to be 1.6 seconds behind but with the difficulties we’re having in setting the bike up at the moment, it is to be expected. The important thing is that we know what we have to work on, we’ve known it since Qatar, but it is clear that the solution wasn’t going to come to us at this circuit. We have to be patient because we know the bike is good, we have a great package and a great team – we just need a bit more time to work things out. We have good data from Qatar and I can’t wait to get there and go racing again!”
Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda MotoGP: 1m 40.646s, on lap 52 of 60 “Before the 45-minute session we worked especially on a used rear tire to find better grip and we fixed some points on the chassis and suspension set-up. We found good solutions, because I set a good lap time on the used tire, but I expected something better with a soft tire in the qualifying session, maybe three or four tenths faster, but I made a small mistake in my last lap. Anyway we must continue our job because I am sure we can close the gap with the middle group. Honestly my intention is to qualify in the top ten and my squad is doing a very good job to adjust the machine for the first race in Qatar.”
Yuki Takahashi, Scot Racing Team Honda: 1m 40.814s, on lap 49 of 65 “I’m happy with the improvement we have made during the two days here. Today we worked particularly on the rear end of the machine. The rain during the afternoon gave me a chance to check how my Honda works in the rain, and I have to say that its character does not change on a wet track, which is a positive thing. Of course, I wish that we could have some more practice time, but now I am looking forward to my first race on the RC212V.”
Alex de Angelis, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 40.869s, on lap 39 of 40 “Unfortunately after the crash yesterday I had to use a new tire so that meant I had to run a used tire this morning and that is obviously not the ideal way to test new technical solutions with the bike. We’ve been off the pace here today but we’re going to keep working hard to be in the mix in Qatar. Our problem has been getting heat into the tire but hopefully the track conditions are going to be warmer once the season starts so we’re still optimistic and very determined about what lies ahead.”
Kousuke Akiyoshi, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 42.206s, on lap 34 of 40 “This was another positive day where we worked on both chassis balance to improve the handling and the engine balance for driveability. My pace on the first section of the lap was very good and actually nearly as fast as the quickest riders. We were losing some time however in the middle section of the lap. Towards the end of the timed session I had a fall at the hairpin which was a shame, but the overall results from this test, in spite of the rain today and yesterday, are quite good.”
