It’s not a new Honda – Thankfully!
- From: TRS Media | Published: February 9th, 2009 - 12:17 pm
Dani Pedrosa speaks frankly about his bike, his tires and his take on his performance at the first MotoGP test this year, Sepang.
“There is no difference really between the bike I finished last season with and the bike I have now,” confirmed the Catalan. “I didn’t ask Honda for anything new as such; there were just some items that we wanted to improve such as braking, because we can see that our rivals are very strong in braking now.”
And what are the current strengths and weakness of his factory RC212V?
“The best part of this bike at the moment is that it has a powerful engine,” replied Dani, the only Honda rider to win an 800cc race. “The chassis I’d like to improve because with the Bridgestone tires it’s kind of difficult to ride it – with the Michelin it was a little smoother – but the grip performance is better now.”
Although only eighth during day one of testing, Pedrosa lowered his lap time by 1.452sec to sit fourth by the end of day two – making him the fastest Honda rider.
“We did a good job today, always working on chassis and suspension,” he said. “This track is good to set-up the bike because it has hard braking, hard acceleration, fast corners and is very demanding because it is so hot. At other tracks it is not so difficult to get a good lap time and, maybe you feel better, but you are not working correctly.”
“I’ve tested everything, I only needed to do a race simulation [on day three] but I cannot do more than 5-6 laps at a time,” he explained before leaving for the nearby airport. “I will rest my knee now and try to be fit for the Qatar test [March 1-3].”
So far in MotoGP, Pedrosa has won two races a year and amassed 27 podium finishes, but is yet to prove he can deliver a season-long title attack and reigning champion Valentino Rossi considers Casey Stoner and Ducati to be a bigger threat. Pedrosa will hope that consistent machinery can change that perception in 2009.
Eurosport
