Repsol Honda team wrap up Sepang test

Friday, 26 February 2010

Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa completed their second test of 2010 on the RC212V prototype at Sepang on Friday, and are already looking forward to the final pre-season test in Qatar.

Making full use of the two days of testing at the Sepang International Circuit on Thursday and Friday, Repsol Honda riders Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa gained more of an idea of where their RC212V machines are ahead of the final pre-season test in Qatar.

Dovizioso was happy with his day’s work on Friday as he brought his time down by a further two-tenths of a second from the previous day, taking in 46 laps in the Malaysian heat as he completed a three-quarter race distance in the afternoon.

“If we consider the two days in total this second test session has represented a big step forward compared to the last time we came here at the beginning of February,” said Dovizioso, whose best lap time was 2’01.439. “I’m satisfied that we could lap consistently and for the race this is very important. We did a race simulation and the pace with race tyres was good.”

He continued: “Today I can’t be totally satisfied with seventh on the timesheets and this was because I wasn’t able to use the soft tyre at its best to improve the lap time. It’s something we’ll have to analyse because getting a good grid position for the race is important. Of course there is still work to do to get closer to Valentino and Casey, but anyway, all-in-all I’m very confident.”

Pedrosa, who completed 57 laps on Friday with a best time of 2’01.478, was just behind his team-mate on the timesheet as the eighth quickest rider and he outlined the aims for Qatar.

“We put in a lot of work today and tried many things on the machine to improve our pace,” said Pedrosa. “We made some progress with the feeling from the engine which is positive, though we didn’t really get the results we were looking for elsewhere, and some of the issues we had yesterday are still there. So, there’s plenty for us still to do before Qatar.”

He added: “The team is working really hard and we’re positive that there’s a lot more to come. Of course I can’t say that eighth is where I want to be on the timesheets at the end of this test, so we’ll definitely look to move things forward in Qatar.”