Honda riders have left the Sepang 2 tests with such amazing results that it’s almost become mundane writing about it, and personally we can’t wait to see if they’re going to be this fast even at night on the colder Losail track in Qatar.
All of the riders were quite satisfied with their work and test results except Toni Elias, who is still lagging behind and at this moment is probably wondering if giving up his Moto2 crown is worth ending up almost last on the timesheets.
Casey Stoner “We had a good day comparing the chassis’ again and I’m happy we have made our decision on which one we’ll use for the season.
We also tried a lot of electronics with engine braking and found improvements in a few areas, and some losses in others so we need to rectify these.
The chassis we’ve chosen always behaves in the way we want it to; no matter what set-up we use, we are also able to adapt it fairly easily.
So when we get to Qatar in a few weeks we’ll be able to test different set-up’s at the same time and get more track time on it.
Some changes can be quite time consuming to do, so having the two bikes with identical chassis will be useful.
The test here has been very productive for us; we did a long run here today – almost race distance – and gathered some key information.
I’m feeling more and more comfortable on the RC212V and I can’t wait to get to Qatar.
” Dani Pedrosa:“We did a very good three days testing; both tests here in Sepang have been very positive.
We improved the braking and worked a lot with different chassis configurations and electronics.
It’s been a much better winter test than last year, even if we know that everybody will improve for the first race.
I’m leaving Sepang satisfied and I think testing in Qatar will give further opportunity to check our work at another circuit, with a different layout and track conditions to what we have had here.
I’ve spent more or less the same time with last year’s chassis and the modified 2011 chassis and my best lap time was with the 2011 version, but it will be nice to check it again in Qatar and take there the final decision.
I think the bike and myself are in a good shape and we are getting to Qatar with more confidence than last year, but we need to keep our feet on the ground because we had many problems at the beginning of last season and then we improved a lot, so the others can do the same.
Nothing is clear until we start racing.
”Marco Simoncelli:“I am very happy for the time I did this morning.
But today we were a bit confused during the race simulation.
Yesterday, with the hard rubber I could be very fast, but this afternoon, from the beginning, I was considerably worse; I could not do the same time.
Anyway, I’m pretty calm, because the performance today was determined by a choice of tyres, which was not just a good idea – maybe it would be better to opt for a soft rubber like other people did – and I was fast in in the race simulation.
But I repeat, we are not at all worried and even go away from Malaysia very happy with the work done in these three days and also happy to change the track because after six days of evidence in these two tests at the Sepang circuit, I was quite exhausted by now.
”Andrea Dovizioso:“The good point is that we are really fast, and to have the first two tests like this is a great thing.
Also, when we tried the race simulation we were fast, so this is confirmed that we are strong and can fight.
However, after completing the simulation I discovered a problem in the front – as I had in some races in 2009 – after a few laps I lose some grip in the middle of the corner.
I will leave this test very happy, but we’re far from perfect.
We need to study what we changed that caused this problem as it occurred after we added just five litres more of fuel.
Anyway, even with this problem I completed many fast laps and we are very fast compared to last year.
I feel without the problem I had in the front of the bike, I would be able to achieve a similar pace to Dani and Casey, so I’m happy about this.
”Hiroshi Aoyama: “Finally we have finished these tests, which have been very challenging for me.
We have done so much work that I was partly satisfied and partly not.
The team supported me a lot and together we are able to understand the way to go about the technical solutions to be taken for the season.
In the end I’m happy and I can not wait to arrive in Qatar for the next test and begin to build on the great work on this circuit.
I am happy to work with these guys and I hope to shortly give them satisfaction.
”Toni Elias:“If we consider the three days in total we took a step forward on suspension set-up and chassis geometry.
Now that we have a much clearer idea of the direction to go in I am happy with the work we have done.
I’m not as happy with my lap time, but we were too busy working through other things.
These days we have done several comparative tests and found a different feeling on the bike compared with the first outing here three weeks ago.
Now we will check the data we gathered to be more competitive in Qatar for the last test session before the season starts.
I want to thank the guys for their efforts because they are helping me a lot to adapt to this bike.
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