Sepang - day one for Hayden and Pedrosa
The Repsol Honda Team returned to the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia today to begin another three days of testing ahead of the 2006 MotoGP season. In sweltering heat, the factory RC211Vs were seen for the first time in their new-for-2006 paint scheme.
Nicky Hayden spent the day further developing the 2006 Repsol Honda and testing Michelin race tyres. Traction problems caused by high track temperatures meant the American rider was left slightly frustrated after his day`s work, yet confident of improvements to come.

New signing Dani Pedrosa, the reigning 250cc World Champion, began his third full test on the Honda by continuing to acclimatise to a MotoGP machine, honing chassis and suspension settings and testing new Michelin tyres.

The works riders were joined at Sepang by former GP star, Tady Okada. The 39-year-old Japanese rider, who is Japan`s most successful campaigner in the premier series and is now a test rider for Honda, performed initial testing of a new version of Honda`s RC211V. Nicky Hayden will test the bike tomorrow.

Nicky Hayden 2m 02.86s. Laps completed: 90
"I`m not completely satisfied with the day to be honest with you. At the start I just didn`t have a good feeling with the traction. As the day went on we kept working hard and chipped away and found some stuff and I was able to get into the 2m 02s when it was still really hot, so that was positive, but we weren`t where we needed to be today. I`m not pointing the finger. We`re all in it together and to be honest the rider wasn`t getting around as good as he should have, and my information wasn`t that great. Still, we`ve definitely got some stuff we can build on - we changed some offset settings which helped me with front feeling in the slow corners."

Dani Pedrosa 2m 01.89s. Laps completed: 77
"Today was not too bad. At the beginning the track was a little bit slippery but it got better. We were working on chassis and suspension settings in the morning and then after lunch we tested some tyres for Michelin until the rain stopped us. At the beginning my times weren`t so good, but we improved little by little. We have tested here three times and I`m gaining good experience. I still have to work on my strength and fitness, but I think with the time we have we can achieve it. And I`ve now got a riding position I`m happy with."

Makoto Tanaka - Repsol Honda Team Manager
"This test is very important for Honda and today the track was very hot which didn`t help the lap times. Again, Nicky had many things to test. His time wasn`t the fastest, but I`m not worried about this, it`s a three day test and we have more new things to try tomorrow. Dani was working on bike settings and he made good progress."


Tags: sepang, test, repsol, honda, hayden, pedrosa,