Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa completed their winter testing programmes at Losail at midnight tonight. After acclimatising to riding under floodlights yesterday evening, the pair continued working at getting the best out of their RC212Vs in these very different conditions.Hayden is now raring to go racing after a busy few weeks of testing in Asia, Australia, Europe and here in the Middle East. Pedrosa’ right-hand injury is slightly better than it was at Jerez two weeks ago, allowing him to spend more time on the track, but the Spaniard certainly won’t be at full strength for next weekend’s season-opening Qatar GP.
Practice for the 2008 Qatar MotoGP event, the first GP to be staged in the dark, begins at 7pm on Friday March 7. Qualifying takes place at 10.55pm on March 8, with the race at 11pm on March 9.
Nicky Hayden – fastest lap: 1m 55.674s (lap 93 of 94)
"I’ve enjoyed riding at night but conditions are not easy here at night – there’s the wind and the track temperature changes a lot. We tried race tyres tonight and at the end we tried a couple of qualifiers, we went quicker but we’re not where we need to be. We left Jerez feeling really confident but we’ve been brought back to reality. Nonetheless I’m happy to go racing after so much testing, that’s exciting. Now we’ve got some work to do, we need to try to come up with something to make an improvement. I think we can get the bike to hold the line better and finish the corner better. Now Honda have got a couple of days to think about stuff and I’ve got some time to go over some lines, so hopefully come Friday night we’ll be closer to where we need to be”.
Dani Pedrosa –fastest lap: 1m 56.704s (lap 38 of 75)
“It’s been quite a difficult two days here. So far we haven't found the solution to the problems we are having. We’ve tried many different things but at the moment we aren’t getting the results we were expecting. The main problem is grip. The tyres are fine, you can see that because the guys with the 2007 Hondas and Michelins are fast, so it’s something else. Maybe riding at night has some influence on this, because there’s a lot of humidity, but that’s the same for everybody. My right hand is little bit better, I had some time to rest it after Jerez, so here I’ve been able to ride more laps than I could manage at Jerez”.
Official Lap Time
1. Jorge LORENZO (Fiat Yamaha) 1:54.552
2. James TOSELAND (Yamaha Tech3) 1:54.592
3. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda Lcr) 1:54.973
4. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha Tech3) 1:55.467
5. Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1:55.485
6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Jir Honda Scot ) 1:55.550
7. Nicky HAYDEN (Repsol Honda) 1:55.674
8 Chris VERMEULEN (Rizla Suzuki) 1:56.119
9. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda San Carlo) 1:56.249
10. Valentino ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha) 1:56.256
11. Loris CAPIROSSI (Rizla Suzuki) 1:56.450
12. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki) 1:56.612
13. Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda) 1:56.704
14. Shinya NAKANO (Honda San Carlo) 1:56.792
15. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1:56.902
16. Toni ELIAS (Alice Ducati) 1:56.986
17. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Alice Ducati) 1:57.055
18. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki) 1:57.459
Circuit Lenght: 5380 m
Lap Record: 1.56.528 C. Stoner 2007 (Ducati)
Pole Position: 1.55.002 V. Rossi 2007 (Yamaha)
Source : www.trymysport.co.uk
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