TahoesHateMe

ROAD RACING - And The Honda Boys Say...
Posted By Paul Carruthers
At The Top 3/18/2005

The following release is from Honda...


Honda riders quickly settled into their stride on the opening day of the three-day MotoGP test at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, with Repsol Honda factory team rider Max Biaggi topping the time sheet.

Biaggi worked hard on the geometry of his Honda RC211V eventually finding the set up he needed to be fast around the fast 4.727km circuit. The Italian edged out fellow Honda RCV rider Sete Gibernau (Telefonica MoviStar) with a lap time 1.5 seconds faster than Gibernau?s lap record set at the grad prix in 2004. Makoto Tamada set third fastest time on his Konica Minolta RCV Honda. Japanese star Tamada was using Michelin tyres for the first time at Catalunya worked on he chassis and suspension settings before racking up series of fast times as the day drew to a close.

Marco Melandri, on the second Telefonica MoviStar liveried RCV, was the surprise package of the opening of the test setting fourth fastest time. Melandri topped the time sheet twice before bettered in the closing 30 minutes. The Italian youngster, in his first season on a Honda, has been impressive all through winter testing slowly building up his pace at each test as he began to master the 990cc V5 GP machine.

Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) felt he had not ridden at his best, ended his day in mid-pack. Hayden lacked a little confidence in the front end.

The Camel Honda team of Alex Barros and Troy Bayliss continued where they had left off at the Qatar test, Barros working on front suspension and tyres, Bayliss on the overall balance of his RCV. With the front end now to his liking Barros will concentrate on tyre testing tomorrow.

Honda rider lap times and quotes.

Max Biaggi, Repsol Honda: 1m 43.158s ? 85 laps

?We?ve been working the whole day to find the right set-up for this track. The newly laid surface makes it definitely faster. Someone came here to win the car at stake for Sundays fastest lap, not me. I have one already and it works well enough. My goal is to improve the race setting. We tried some new front tyres, but basically the bike is still the same. Tomorrow well test some new parts, mainly suspension. We are looking for an easier way of riding our RCV, especially in the corners. Im very satisfied with my team, we are all giving the best. There is the right atmosphere to deliver our job.?

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 44.284s ? 84 laps.

?It was cool to be back on the track with everyone, kinda fun. Honestly, I didnt feel my best today. Physically I felt okay but I wasnt riding up the level I know Im capable of. I didnt feel totally confident with the front of the machine hopefully this will come tomorrow. No panic we have three days here and Im confident we can pick it up a bit. The new surface at the circuit is really good. We just need to get the confidence level up especially into the corners.?

Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 43.347s -

?I?m very satisfied because also when I don?t find a track in its pefect condition like it was this morning, I make it to be fast because the feeling with the bike and the tyres is at a optimal level. Tomorrow and on Sunday I am sure we?ll achieve better lap times as for what I know Michelin brought us some new interesting tyres to test.?

Sete Gibernau, Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 1m 43.254s ? 74 laps.

"To say it is the first day we've done a good job. We've tested a lot of things and that always means you lose time because you have to come in to pit so often. Despite that we've been at the top from the start and that has to be a good sign. We've got less things to test tomorrow so we'll be able to focus a little more on certain aspects. I'm very happy because Honda have brought us a bit of everything we asked for and we set a good pace every time we went out."

Marco Melandri, Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 1m 43.433s ? 77 laps.

"In Qatar I knew I had taken a step forward in terms of confidence and I felt much more sure of myself coming into these tests. The results shows that I feel more and more comfortable with the bike every day and I am working hard to adapt my riding style to it. I've just tried to concentrate on myself and prepare as well as possible for the races. I didn't put soft tyres on at any point. We're making progress and, if we get through our programme tomorrow as we have done today, I want to do a race simulation on Sunday"

Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 1m 43.902s ? 9 laps.

?Today was a challenging day, which ended a few minutes early because we had tested all the tyres we had been handed. The whole day we were struggling with the forks; we did thousands of tests but none of them seemed to work, with none of the tyres. At the end we changed them and everything was solved in an instant. Now we have found out that there was a little technical problem with a sensor, nothing serious, but enough to stop me from riding my best. As soon as we made the change, using the same settings and the same tyres as before I rode half a second quicker. It?s a shame that it was just over an hour before the end. That doesn?t matter though, now I know we are ready and we can go well.?

Troy Bayliss, Camel Honda: 1m 44.403s ? 90 laps.

?I?m very satisfied because we are working well. Today I did so many laps and there was some positive progression. We picked out the direction we will work in and I fell confident now. I?m sure we will improve, we are just at the beginning of this very important test and we have to make the most of it so we can be ready for the first race.?