Repsol HRC

REPSOL HONDA TEAM TACKLE NEW SURFACE AT SEPANG

The Malaysian Grand Prix began today with two hours of MotoGP free practice in typically tropical conditions at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur. The Repsol Honda Team riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa used the morning session to begin tailoring the set-up of their factory RC212Vs to the newly-laid surface at the World Championship’s longest circuit. A rain shower curtailed the final moments of the morning hour with Dani Pedrosa lying in a promising second place and Nicky Hayden just behind in third.

Heavy rainfall at lunchtime saw the afternoon session starting with a partially wet track and the MotoGP field progressing from full wet tyres to intermediates to slicks as the surface slowly dried. Dani Pedrosa was quick again and spent a significant portion of the session at the head of the timesheets, before slipping to fourth when the chequered flag came out just before 3pm. Hayden improved his pace from the morning by a full second, though the 2006 World Champion felt he delayed the switch to slick tyres for too long and wasn’t fully satisfied with his finishing position of tenth.

With new asphalt covering several sections of Sepang’s 5.548km (3.447-mile) lap, the track’s surface grip is expected to increase throughout the weekend. Practice continues on Saturday morning with the one-hour qualifying session beginning at 1.50pm local time, when the Repsol Honda Team will be looking to record their fourth consecutive pole position. The 21-lap Malaysian Grand Prix begins at 3pm local time on Sunday (9am CET, 8am UK).

Dani Pedrosa – 4th Fastest lap: 2m 03.767s
“The day went pretty well and we’ve made a lot of progress with the set-up today. The new surface here seems ok. There are some sections of the new track where there are many small bumps but they are not too severe so we should be able to deal with them. Also the grip is not bad, although the feeling is slightly strange through some sections of the track – I think because it is a new surface. We’re expecting the grip to improve as more rubber is laid down over the course of the weekend. I think we were pretty lucky with the weather today. We lost some time in both sessions, but we missed the worst of the rain. Tomorrow we’ll continue with the set-up work and hopefully get a good starting position in qualifying. It would be nice to have three pole positions in a row of course, but our rivals look strong again so we’ll have to work very hard for it.”

Nicky Hayden – 10th Fastest lap: 2m 04.752s
“This morning wasn’t bad at all and we got on the pace straight away. This afternoon wasn’t that stellar though. I probably wasted too much time on full wets and intermediates. In those conditions, especially on intermediates, is where I need to step up my game because we could get these conditions really easily on Sunday. Once we got going we improved our speed from this morning but we’re quite a way from where we need to be. Parts of the track feel ok but we’ve got to find something more with the tyres if we want to be competitive, otherwise we could be in a little bit of trouble. Maybe the track will clean up and start being kinder on the tyres. It’s quite strange coming here with a completely new surface because we’ve done so many practice laps on the old surface and we were very familiar with it. The surface was quite dirty and slippery this morning to start with. It’s definitely getting a bit better so it would be nice to get some more dry weather tomorrow, put down some rubber and move things forward.”

Makoto Tanaka – Repsol Honda Team Manager
“We had 50 minutes of dry practice this morning and 40 minutes this afternoon and we should be grateful for this considering the rain that fell at lunchtime. Dani went quite well today and his feeling from the new surface and the machine was good. Nicky went well this morning but struggled to get a rhythm this afternoon after perhaps staying out on wet and intermediates a little bit too long. Some of our rivals look strong again today so we must examine the data from today’s sessions and prepare to make some adjustments to the machine settings we use tomorrow. The afternoon weather here is so unpredictable, but we expect the track surface condition to continue to improve and our lap times to come down further.”

Konica Minolta Honda

Difficult conditions for KONICA MINOLTA Honda at Malaysian GP

Changeable weather conditions have once more hampered the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team’s progress during the first practice day for this weekend’s MotoGP race. Team rider Shinya Nakano also suffered two harmless crashes today – one a result of a mechanical problem for the rider ahead of him when the 30-year-old Japanese rider collided with Chaz Davies and crashed. The second crash in the afternoon session happened at the end of the timed hour when the former 250cc GP runner-up was pushing hard to improve his time in the tricky conditions. It is hoped that the weather and temperature will improve in time for tomorrow’s qualifying session at the 3.447-mile circuit.

Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“This morning Shinya was unlucky as there was a problem for Chaz Davies ahead of him and they touched and Shinya crashed. This compromised his practice session in the morning. Once more we have seen conditions during practice that haven’t been easy to handle for the riders! We’ve had some rain, then it’s stopped, then it’s dried out and we’ve gone onto slick tyres again. The feedback is that Shinya needs more feeling from the front tyre because he simply doesn’t have the feeling with the machine. In the last two laps of the afternoon session he was making his best lap time but was not able to finish the last lap as he crashed at turn four. It seems likely that the weather and temperature conditions will probably change again tomorrow and this along with the fact 70% of the track has new asphalt on it will mean that we will probably have to start again to find a good setting. We hope these conditions will change for the better so that Shinya will hopefully get some more grip from the front tyre.”

Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (29 laps – 2’ 05.939 ”)
“It’s not been my day today! This morning Chaz Davies was ahead of me and he had a problem with his engine and suddenly slowed in front of me and I hit him from behind. This afternoon I was pushing hard and lost the front, maybe because of the combination of our tyres and suspension not being perfect. The new asphalt and weather conditions makes things very difficult for all the riders. There are fewer bumps than before, which is good, but much less grip. Tomorrow we will work hard to improve our situation.”

Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“Conditions have again been so difficult for us and we’ve had the two crashes, but these things happen. In the afternoon conditions were finally coming better and better. We started with rain tyres and then slicks, but the track was not completely dry, as it had wet patches in some corners. Shinya had problems with both the contact feeling and grip from the front tyre and this was the reason behind his second crash. He was behind Dani Pedrosa and trying to push hard, but lost the front. Whatever the conditions it seems we have to find more feeling and grip from the front-end of our Honda RC212V. Conditions have been difficult for all the riders today with the wet and the new asphalt, so if the weather improves tomorrow we will all be starting again to find a good setting for the race.” 

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