With only the Yamaha Factory Team, Repsol Honda Team and LCR Honda MotoGP present at the private test in Aragon, riders set to work on their busy schedule for two days, in a bid to gain the upper hand at the forthcoming rounds.
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa’s main aim was to set the bike up for the race at the Aragon circuit later this month, working in particular on suspension settings and the electronics. After clocking the fastest time of 1.47’983, the Spaniard said: "We tried to improve the rear grip and something with the mapping. The suspension today was not the best, so the test is not clear for me today, so tomorrow we’ll re-test the same things again just to get an idea what we can use in the following races."
WSBK rider Jonathan Rea, who's substituting for current World Champion Casey Stoner, was lapping the Aragon circuit in a bid to familiarise himself with it on the Repsol Honda bike, without touching the bike’s set up.
Rea's quickest time was a 1.50'679, just under three seconds off Pedrosa, already improving from his last outing in the Czech Republic. The man from Northern-Ireland said: "Today I was just getting a good feeling between me and the machine because it still feels very strange. I had to work a lot on my brake style today; normally in Superbike I don't use so much rear brake but here it seems that I have to learn to use it in every corner! Just concentrating on this and getting a better setting on the brakes and trying to do longer runs on the tyres because for me it's very different at the end. I feel comfortable on the bike, the riding position is good, but I just need to understand how the traction control is working, what happens when the tyres drop down and be more comfortable with the setup.”
Spanish Yamaha rider and current Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo continued where he left off after the test in the Czech Republic by heading out on track with Yamaha's next year's chassis, clocking a 1.48’471. The Mallorcan said: "We tried the new chassis. So far we haven’t found a positive or a negative thing. We have to keep trying and do more laps to see. Tomorrow we are going to try the new engine. Maybe this will give us a little bit more power on the straight. This is our weaker point, we are loosing almost 5kmh to Dani. Dani is also very light, but for sure his engine is a little bit faster. But in general we are quite happy because we improved our lap time by half a second compared to the previous one a few months ago."
His American teammate Ben Spies, who set a time of 1.48’647, focussed on improving both the set-up of his Yamaha M1, focussing both on tyre-life over race distance and qualifying-lap settings. The Texan said: "We have a lot of different settings with the bike. Mainly with the front-end, with the forks, to get me a little bit more comfortable with the hard braking. We’ve equalled our fastest lap time over here this morning quite easily. We have some more test parts for tomorrow."
With much speculation about his future, Spies said that people wouldn’t have to wait much longer for some news: "Everybody will know something this week."
German LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl was given the opportunity to test a factory spec Honda RC213V for the day, as Bradl may be using the bike next season with his satellite team. Last year's Moto2 Champion finished the day in fourth with a 1.49’570, just over a second and a half off Pedrosa’s time.
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa’s main aim was to set the bike up for the race at the Aragon circuit later this month, working in particular on suspension settings and the electronics. After clocking the fastest time of 1.47’983, the Spaniard said: "We tried to improve the rear grip and something with the mapping. The suspension today was not the best, so the test is not clear for me today, so tomorrow we’ll re-test the same things again just to get an idea what we can use in the following races."
WSBK rider Jonathan Rea, who's substituting for current World Champion Casey Stoner, was lapping the Aragon circuit in a bid to familiarise himself with it on the Repsol Honda bike, without touching the bike’s set up.
Rea's quickest time was a 1.50'679, just under three seconds off Pedrosa, already improving from his last outing in the Czech Republic. The man from Northern-Ireland said: "Today I was just getting a good feeling between me and the machine because it still feels very strange. I had to work a lot on my brake style today; normally in Superbike I don't use so much rear brake but here it seems that I have to learn to use it in every corner! Just concentrating on this and getting a better setting on the brakes and trying to do longer runs on the tyres because for me it's very different at the end. I feel comfortable on the bike, the riding position is good, but I just need to understand how the traction control is working, what happens when the tyres drop down and be more comfortable with the setup.”
Spanish Yamaha rider and current Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo continued where he left off after the test in the Czech Republic by heading out on track with Yamaha's next year's chassis, clocking a 1.48’471. The Mallorcan said: "We tried the new chassis. So far we haven’t found a positive or a negative thing. We have to keep trying and do more laps to see. Tomorrow we are going to try the new engine. Maybe this will give us a little bit more power on the straight. This is our weaker point, we are loosing almost 5kmh to Dani. Dani is also very light, but for sure his engine is a little bit faster. But in general we are quite happy because we improved our lap time by half a second compared to the previous one a few months ago."
His American teammate Ben Spies, who set a time of 1.48’647, focussed on improving both the set-up of his Yamaha M1, focussing both on tyre-life over race distance and qualifying-lap settings. The Texan said: "We have a lot of different settings with the bike. Mainly with the front-end, with the forks, to get me a little bit more comfortable with the hard braking. We’ve equalled our fastest lap time over here this morning quite easily. We have some more test parts for tomorrow."
With much speculation about his future, Spies said that people wouldn’t have to wait much longer for some news: "Everybody will know something this week."
German LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl was given the opportunity to test a factory spec Honda RC213V for the day, as Bradl may be using the bike next season with his satellite team. Last year's Moto2 Champion finished the day in fourth with a 1.49’570, just over a second and a half off Pedrosa’s time.
