Positive evaluations from Pedrosa and Dovizioso

Testing the 2010 version of their Honda RC212V bikes alongside their old prototypes at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit this week, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso were pleased with the results gathered as they look forward to next season.

Pedrosa was sampling Ohlins suspension and recorded the second-fastest lap on the final day of testing on Wednesday with a 1’31.944.

“We had a good day out there. The track conditions were very good and there was a lot of grip, so we were able to improve our speed quite a lot,” said Pedrosa. “My feeling with the new suspension really improved and that was our main focus here. It’s a big change because I’ve been riding with Showa (suspension) since 2003, so of course it takes a while to get used to something new. We didn’t spend a lot of time working specifically on adjustments with the new chassis because it was important to concentrate on one thing at a time.”

Dovizioso, who sustained a hairline fracture to his left hip in a fall on Tuesday, was back on board his bike on Wednesday as he set his best time of the three days in the final session with a hot lap of 1’32.825.

“We confirmed some of the setting improvements we found earlier, and we also tested some solutions that we couldn’t get round to on Tuesday because of my crash,” explained the Italian rider. “I improved my lap time and I was able to go faster than during the whole race weekend, so this is positive. All in all I’m very confident because I could lap at 1’32.8 at the end of today’s session, and this lap time is as good as race pace.”

He continued, “The stability while braking has improved and I think that we are working in the right direction, though we still need to take a step forward. For instance, we can still improve the drivability on the exit of corners and that’s something we’ll work on in February.”