MotoGP Final Third Day of Testing in Jerez

From a Honda Motor Sports press release:

HONDA RACING INFORMATION


MotoGP test Jerez, Spain November 30, 2006. Final day of three-day test.

Dani Pedrosa tops the Jerez MotoGP time sheet

The third and last day of the MotoGP saw Repsol
Honda rider Dani Pedrosa put in the fastest time
overall for the test, the final MotoGP action of
an amazing senior class season. Pedrosa, MotoGP
‘Rookie of the year’ in 2006 scorched around the
4.423km Jerez circuit, in Southern Spain at 1m
39.910s the only rider to break the 1m 40s barrier.

In bright sunny weather Pedrosa slowly worked his
way through a range of chassis settings before
switching to development work on the new 800cc
engine, then tyre testing for Michelin. The
former double 250cc world champion, who also won
a 125cc title, put in an a gruelling 94 lap
session culminating with a time attack on
qualifying rubber that delivered him the fastest
lap time of the three-day test.

The Gresini Honda squad were the busiest men at
Jerez today. Crew chief Antonio Jiminez and the
mechanics made several changes to the geometry of
the RC212V eventually finding a base set up to
work from. With the improved chassis suspension
settings the team got down to serious tyre
testing with Bridgestone. Melandri, a former
250cc world champion and five time MotoGP race
winner ended the day in buoyant mood and looking
forward to the next series of MotoGP tests which
begin at Sepang, Malaysia on January 22.

Shinya Nakano took a big step towards finding the
ideal base line set up for his Konica Minolta
Honda. The Japanese rider completed 70 laps
working on chassis and suspension before moving
onto tyre testing for Michelin.

The Honda 250cc teams also completed a successful
three-days of testing 2007 chassis developments
at Jerez. Repsol Honda team rider Shuhei Aoyama
spent the day testing the latest version of the
RS250RW chassis powered by a 2006 engine that HRC brought to Spain.
The Japanese rider chasing increased corner speed and stability.

While Aoyama tested new parts his team mate for
2007, Julian Simon was making his 250 debut at
Jerez following a four-years in 125 grand prix
racing. Simon worked diligently riding as many
laps as possible on the 250.testing different
suspension chassis setting combinations in an
effort to understand the characteristics of the more powerful machine.

Simon was the fastest 250 rider on the final day
of the test surprising many with his consistent
high pace over his marathon 68 lap stint today.

Humangest Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was a busy
man on the final day running through an extensive
test programme before the session stopped at
18.00.  The Italian, former 125cc world champion,
was the only 250 Honda rider to test both engine
development parts designed for the 2007 machine
and the new chassis. While the chassis performed
better on corner entry and exit than its
predecessor Andrea feels the mid-corner
performance needs to improve and is confident HRC
will provide for that before the next scheduled 250cc test in February.

The winter testing ban which runs from December
1, 2006 until January 20, 2007 now comes into
force. The Honda MotoGP teams will resume testing
at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia on January 22, 2007.


Honda rider lap times and quotes:

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 39.910s – 94 laps
"Today we worked on just about everything again –
chassis, engine, suspension and tyres. We began
with chassis and engine testing in the morning
and then concentrated on testing tyres for
Michelin. I used a qualifying tyre to set my
fastest lap time and this is good because it’s
important to see how a new bike like the RC212V
behaves on qualifiers too. Of course there’s
still plenty of work to do before the season
starts but this was a positive test for us. Now I
will relax a little over the winter break, before
getting ready for the January tests."


Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 40.530s – 76
laps. “The team did a great job today I think
they made five changes to the geometry during the
day  - they hardly stopped to take a snack! For
me it was very important to find the base
geometry we will use this season once we found a
setting I was comfortable with we moved on to
suspension testing and then tyres. In the morning
OI as not so happy but after lunch we really saw
an improvement and we made a big step forward.
This is not the bike I will use so I’m looking
forward to riding my own RC212V at the Sepang
test in January. The HRC engineer and the
Bridgestone staff are very close to my team they
make me feel important – they want to help me any
way they can and this gives me great confidence for the season.”


Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 41.142s –
75 laps. “I am much more confident on the bike
today than I was yesterday. Today I spent time
working with various gearbox ratio changes to
find the best base to work from. When we found
that we moved on to suspension work and tyre
testing. We had a little front-end chatter early
on but fixed that with suspension settings.
Overall I must say this test has been very
positive. I know we can improve and I have to
improve myself. But I go back to Japan for a
holiday with my family very pleased that we had a
test within this year. The team now have time to
work on the machine before we test at Sepang in January.”

Julian Simon, Repsol Honda 250: 1m 44.153s – 68
laps. “My overall impression of the 250 Honda at
this test has been very good. I am working with a
very experienced team and this gives me
motivation. The bike has great potential I rode
the 2006 machine to gain experience and it was
OK, I like the way the chassis behaves. After I
was happy with the 2006 bike I tried the new
chassis for a few laps and liked that also. The
engine power is so much stronger than the 125 but
the only difficulty I had with the increased
power was trying to get the bike to hold the fast
line in the corners, you have to be more physical
with the bike. In general my feeling about the
250 is positive, I like the tyres and my lap time
was not so bad. No crashes so everything was
good. Now I am looking forward to the next test
when I will get more time on the new chassis and test the 2007 engine parts.”


Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda 250: 1m 44.502s – 45
laps. “The new chassis is better than the 2006
model the big difference is the mid-corner
performance it feels so much better. Corner entry
is slightly better but we are working in the
right direction. Now we can move on to testing engine parts at the next test.”

Andrea Dovizioso, Humangest Honda 250: 1m 44.723s
- 75 laps. "We worked a lot on the chassis and
engine today and I am quite pleased. The new
chassis is better in some ways, corner entry and
exit but the front feels very light on the exit
from the corner. We have to improve my mid-corner
speed but I'm sure we can. The other Honda
(Aoyama) was better in the middle of the corner.
I am not so comfortable on this chassis as I was
with the old one so I have to find a better
feeling with the bike. I like some of he engine
parts we tested here. No big difference in the
power but the engine has a lot more revs, it
doesn't run into a wall now I can over rev and
this helps with the new quick gear shifter we had
the whole process is so much smoother. But for me
the most important thing was the engine
carburetion, this engine is so much better. Last
year we had to be very precise on carburetion or
we had problems I'm very pleased with the new set up."

Unofficial lap times:

1. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda: 1m 39.910s.
2. Valentino Rossi, Yamaha: 1m 40.123s.
3. Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 40.530s
4. Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki: 1m 40.766s.
5. John Hopkins, Suzuki: 1m 41.049s.
6. Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 41.142s.
7. Colin Edwards, Yamaha: 1m 41.254s.
8. Alex Barros, Ducati: 1m 41.276s.
9. Loris Capirossi, Ducati: 1m 41.492s.
10. Casey Stoner, Ducati: 1m 41.596s.
11. Tady Okada, Repsol Honda: 1m 43.392s.
12. Vittorio Guareschi, Ducati: 1m 44.071s.
13. Julian Simon, Repsol Honda 250: 1m 44.153s.
14. Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda 250: 1m 44.502s.
15. Jeremy McWilliams, Ilmor SRT: 1m 44.661s.
16. Andrea Dovizioso, Humangest Honda 250: 1m 44.723s.
17. Andrew Pitt, Ilmor SRT: 1m 44.983s.