In Jerez
Day two of the final pre-season test at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain yielded mixed results for Repsol Honda`s riders as they made final preparations for the start of the MotoGP season. New signing and reigning World 250 champion, Dani Pedrosa, took another promising step forward as he completed his longest run so far on the 240+bhp Repsol Honda RC211V.
His lap times during this non- stop 22-lap session were consistent and quick, which bodes well for the 27-lap race which takes place here on March 26. Like yesterday, he again finished the day as the fastest rider on Michelin tyres, clocking an impressive 1m 40.859s to finish the day fifth quickest, just ahead of World Champion Valentino Rossi.

American Nicky Hayden improved his time from yesterday as he continued development of the new RC211V. The 24-year-old star from Kentucky, USA, once more completed the highest mileage of any of his fellow riders, although his total of 97 laps was pretty easy going by his recent standards

- yesterday he did 108. He ended the day slightly frustrated that he couldn`t achieve a quicker lap time and is eager to continue work tomorrow. In just over two weeks time the MotoGP season begins here at Jerez with the opening round of the 17-race championship.

Nicky Hayden 1m 41.745s. Laps completed: 97
“We tested some Michelin tyres which were a little bit better, yet overall our performance today was only slightly better than yesterday, so we`re not totally happy. I did some longer runs today to test the feel of the bike and we had some trouble getting the back of the bike to settle down - so this is what we`re working on. We`ll sit down with the boys tonight and definitely try to come up with something for tomorrow and make some big progress.”

Dani Pedrosa 1m 40.859s. Laps completed: 88
“Today was good. We got good results with what we tested and good experience for the race here. The pace of the long run was not really really fast – I could do better – but it was the first time we tried it and I`m happy. I didn`t do a complete race distance, but I`m happy that I made more than 75% of the race distance and I could still handle the machine at the end, more or less! But now I am very tired.”

Makoto Tanaka - Repsol Honda Team Manager
“Both our riders worked hard again and we had another busy day testing. At the end of day, Dani did a very consistent run of 11 laps, including three laps in the 1m 40s bracket. I think a lot of Dani`s supporters who came here enjoyed his progress. We could not achieve the fastest time today and Nicky needs more time to get the right set-up here. Clearly we must do some more work but our pace today with race tyres was quite strong, and again we got the top time of all the Michelin runners. I believe, working in partnership with Michelin, we can improve further. I`m looking forward to see what happens tomorrow.”

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