MotoGP winter testing resumed at Phillip Island, Australia today the opening day of the planned three-day test. Following the successful three-days of testing in Malaysia last week the Honda teams were immediately on the pace in Australia with Telefonica MoviStar Honda rider Sete Gibernau setting the fastest time of the day. Gibernau’s time of 1m 30.290s was just over a tenth of a second outside the pole position time set at the GP at the track last October.

Repsol Honda factory tam rider Nicky Hayden circulated the magnificent 4.448km track faster than ever before to claim second quickest time of the day. The young American has never shown his best form at Phillip Island but his performance today was more than promising and the progress made by the
2005 model Honda RC211V 5-cylinder 990cc overshadows the abilities of its predecessor.

Hayden’s teammate, Italian Max Biaggi was also in good form as he acquaints himself with the new machine and his new technical crew. Today Biaggi spend his time chasing a good set up for the circuit and will go for a fast lap tomorrow.

Marco Melandri was consistently fast all day and despite a crash at turn 8, the right-hand hairpin, the young Italian was pleased with his performance.
He lapped constantly in the 1m 31s bracket, just outside his qualifying time at the GP at Phillip Island last October.

The Camel Honda team worked hard all day, Alex Barros spent his day concentrating on tyre testing and Troy Bayliss chasing a solid base set up for his RC211V. The three-day test is vital to Bayliss. Phillip Island is his home circuit and the Australian believes that, if he can find the elusive optimum settings for the RCV it will stand him in good stead for the coming 17-round world championship season.

The fastest man at the Malaysian test was Konica Minolta Honda rider Makoto Tamada could not repeat his outstanding performance today. Tamada was quick to find his rhythm and setting fast times, faster than at the grand prix held at the track lapping, but his progress was halted by a crash. The Japanese star was taken to hospital for a check up that revealed nothing more than sever bruising to his left hand and left foot. The Rc211V was not so lucky sustaining serious damage in the crash and leaving Tamada with one machine to complete the remaining two days of testing.

Sete Gibernau, Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 1m 30.290s - 101 laps. - “Today we were looking for the confirmation of the work done at Sepang and I’m very satisfied because we lapped fast from the very beginning. We worked on the chassis and did front and rear tyre testing. As we had nothing new to test we concentrated on doing quality laps, riding constantly on a rhythm of 1m 30s. Together with the team we have done a good job, training for the race. Probably tomorrow we will have some new details to test, but from Sepang to here the time is too short for big improvements on the bike.“

Marco Melandri, Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 1m 31.328s 84 laps: “I could be quite satisfied of this first test day at Phillip Island because I was riding with a constant pace of 1m 31s. This afternoon I made a stupid mistake and crashed at turn 5 (the right-hand hairpin) while I was testing a modification at the front fork. It was a pity because I was doing well. After the crash, without consequences, I decided to stop testing for today because I’d like to have some changes on the bike. In particular I’d like to adapt the gearbox values to my riding. All in all I’m confident for tomorrow. “

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 30.530s - 97 laps. - "We've had a really positive day today. I've managed to get my best ever lap around here and we're still on last year's race tyres. We've re-conformed a lot of settings with the new 2005 machine after three days in Malaysia last week. The Phillip Island circuit has always held a problem for me getting onto the start and finish straight, in the past I've been sliding around so today we concentrated on trying to solve that problem and just about did. For the next two days I'm going to work on my lap time and try and find some speed. Today proved the new 2005 machine is a definite improvement and Honda's work has paid off."

Max Biaggi Repsol Honda: 1m 30.652s – 96 laps. - "We enjoyed good conditions today and continued our work, it's definitely a case of 'work in progress' in the Repsol Honda pit garage. The lap time today could have been better but we're here to improve the race set-up. We have a new group of people and the Honda engineers need information and feedback and that's what today was about and we were able to continue the work from Sepang last week. I'm convinced the Repsol Honda team is the best team and we will be making life hard for the rest this season as we try to steal the championship back."

Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 1m 30.610s - 89 laps. - “Today I was already able to do a 1m 30.6s, one-tenth quicker than my best time from the GP here last year, but I am still not completely satisfied because my pace isn’t that good. I need a bit more grip on the front and we also need to work on rear traction. Today we tried some different tyres but we’ve still got some more to try tomorrow on the front and the rear. I’m sure we’ll also work to improve the set-up of the bike tomorrow, working on the suspension and electronics. There’s definitely room for improvement as far as the set-up is concerned”.

Ramon Forcada – Camel Honda. Chief Engineer for Alex Barros “Today we didn’t work too much on the set-up because we’re concentrating particularly on tyres. We started out with the same base set-up as Sepang and in order to be able to properly assess the difference between the tyres we decided not to play around too much with the settings. Tomorrow we’ll work more on the forks and the engine, and then the electronics. We saw from the telemetry data that in a couple of corners Alex isn’t as comfortable as last season so we know where we have to make the changes.”

Troy Bayliss, Camel Honda: 1m 31.801s - 97 laps. - “It’s nice to be back in Australia at my home circuit. I’ve got a lot of references here and I know my way around really well, so when I had the same feeling here as in Sepang I was sure that it is something we have to work on in the set-up of the bike. More than anything it means that if we can get things right here, we’ll be okay at all of the other tracks. We have to work hard and we started to do that today without stopping. I did almost a hundred laps and we’ve already come up with a few modifications to try tomorrow.”

Santiago Mulero – Camel Honda. Chief Engineer for Troy Bayliss. - “Troy was the first rider out today, when the temperature of the track was still quite low. This is his circuit and he is determined to improve, which has given the whole team a lot of motivation. We’re working a lot on the geometry of the bike, on the suspension and the electronics. We know we’ve still got a long way to go but we’re working with maximum effort and concentration.”

Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 31.42s - 31 laps. - “I’m very sad about what happened today because it was the first day of testing and my lap times were giving me many satisfactions, since with a race setting on my bike, I was driving faster than during last year’s Australian grand prix. Now my only hope is to be able to continue, even if surely not in my best physical conditions, to work during this test to develop the bike and obtain important data for the grand prix we will have in the upcoming season. I feel a lot of pain in my left hand and foot, but luckily I didn’t get seriously injured: let’s hope that ice will help me out and will let me ride my bike also tomorrow.”

Giulio Bernardelle – Konica Minolta Honda Technical Director - “During today’s accident the bike had some serious damages and it will not be possible for us to fix it for the rest of this test. Therefore, if Tamada will feel better, the program will allow us to develop our work only on one bike. This morning we made many technical adjustments on the frame of the bike, and if the physical conditions of the rider will improve, tomorrow we will follow the schedule of work that we have planned. Even if we only had the chance to see the bike on the course for half the day, we are very satisfied of the results, because they made us understand that we will be able to compete at the highest level also on this circuit during the season which is about to begin.”