Yamaha and Honda head to Aragón for private test

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa will head out on track with one aim being to get the right set-up for the track when the MotoGP™ grid heads there at the end of September. In addition, it will be the second time WSBK Ten Kate Honda rider Jonathan Rea will take to a circuit on Casey Stoner’s RC213V, as he looks to get to grips with the powerful machine. Whilst the team has not given official confirmation, it has said that Rea is set to substitute for the injured Stoner for the next two rounds in Misano and Aragón. On his first outing with the Australian’s machine, Rea dropped his lap times from over five seconds to within three seconds off the top pace. The rider from Northern Ireland will be hoping to close that gap even further as he continues his work with the bike and the Bridgestone tyres.

Yamaha, which last time out in Brno had Jorge Lorenzo testing one of their 2013 prototypes, will continue to drive forward with their development program, as they look to get the upper hand over their Japanese rivals for the second half of the season. One of Honda’s satellite outfits in the form of LCR Honda MotoGP will give German rookie Stefan Bradl a run out on track, as he not only seeks the correct set-up for the track, but continues to search for a solution to the rear-grip issues he has been experiencing.

Another very significant aspect of the test will be Bridgestone’s presence with newly developed tyres, which could not be evaluated clearly at the Brno test last week. The tyre is a hard compound rubber, which is closer to the composition of the medium compound than the current hard specification, and was developed to deliver a more consistent gap between the different compound options. In Brno some of the riders that tested it sighted an improvement in warm-up performance compared to the existing hard compound, but in order to test the new compound correctly, the new spec will be taken to Aragón, where Bridgestone is hoping for more relevant conditions.

On both days the sessions will run from 9am to 1pm and from 2pm to 6pm. The circuit will open Grandstand 3 for fans to watch the test action, with tickets on both days being free.