The curtain came down on the three-day MotoGP test at Phillip Island, Australia today with the Honda tams and riders leaving for home in confident mood. Team technicians and HRC engineers back to base to analyse the data gathered from the three-day test the riders to recharge their batteries after six grueling day’s work over the last 10 days.

Three Honda RC211V riders broke the 1m 30s barrier at Phillip Island Repsol Honda factory team rider the fastest of the over the three-day with his best time of today at 1m 29.780s. The American put the 2005 version of the 5-cylinder 990cc RCV through an extensive 106-laps at one stage running a race simulation distance which was 28-seconds faster than his race time at the GP held last October.

Hayden’s Repsol Honda teammate Max Biaggi worked even harder putting in 120-laps as he worked his way through a long programme of tyre testing for Michelin. At the end of the day Biaggi was close to exhaustion but pronounced himself happy with the results of the three-day test and the performance of his new technical crew.

Alex Barros (Camel Honda) spent his day testing the new front forks HRC brought to Phillip Island but at the end of the test had yet to find the optimum settings in combination with the range of front tyres he tried. Teammate Troy Bayliss left the track in more buoyant mood than following his three-day test at Sepang last week. The Australian, a former World Superbike Champion, has steadily improved on each of the three-days and his eager to et to the next MotoGP test, at the Losail circuit in Qatar on March 1-3, to continue the progress made at Phillip Island.

Sete Gibernau (Telefonica MoviStar Honda:) had completed his test programme yesterday and took no part in the action today. His teammate, Italian Marco Melandri, did test and set impressive lap time his fastest of the day on his 20th lap of the session. Melandri is in his first season with the RC211V and has steadily improved his consistency to the point where he feels able to go for fast single laps times when the teams get to Losail next month.

Konica Minolta rider Makoto Tamada was another who sat out the day’s action. Tamada crashed heavily on Thursday and was sidelined with severe bruising to his left hand and left foot. The popular Japanese rider will be fit to test at Losail.

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 29.780s – 106 laps - "Today was the best day of the test for me, I got a good, long run in and recognised a bit more where we need to improve, both myself and the machine. I felt good and we made some positive steps forward and the race time I did was 28 seconds faster than my race time last year so we're pretty happy with that - but it's still not enough. We'll take away what we've learnt here and move on to Qatar. I tried both chassis options that we've got and we learned a lot about the differences but overall I just felt more consistent today and some of that's down to me getting into a rut yesterday. We're still a new team but the atmosphere's good and we're gelling really well."

Max Biaggi, Repsol Honda: 1m 29.880s - 120 laps - "I am tired today after so many laps but I wanted to give Michelin the information they needed from the tyres they asked me to test - but I was praying for the red light at the end of the pit lane to end the day's testing! At times today it was a little difficult as there were some spots of rain, which did little for your confidence, especially in the fast sweep into turn one. Overall we have had a good test and confirmed our feeling and direction with the machine set-up following last week's test in Sepang. We know the areas we need to improve on and we have three tests in March to achieve that."

Makoto Tanaka, Repsol Honda Team Manager - "Overall we've had three good days here at Phillip Island. Max probably did too many laps today but it was good that he tried the tyres for Michelin Nicky had a good day today and discovered some areas of set-up which improved his performance. We know we still have a lot of work to do and will continue to work hard towards improving the machine in the next tests in Qatar and Spain."

Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 1m 30.55s - 82 laps - “We worked a lot on the new forks today but we honestly haven’t had the results we were hoping for. I’m losing half a second because of it because the rest of the bike is fine. There are two positive things to take out of it though – firstly that the race here in Australia is not until October, so we have plenty of time to make progress with the forks, and secondly I am really happy with the work we have done here and in Malaysia with Michelin. They are preparing very well for the new season and when we put all the data they have gathered from tests on the compound and construction into practice, I think the results will be excellent. We’ll be able to verify that in Qatar, although it is not the best circuit because we don’t have many references there, and definitely at the IRTA tests in Spain.”

Ramon Forcada, Camel Honda – Alex Barros’ Chief Engineer - “We were expecting a little bit more today from the tests we carried out on the front forks, which are specially designed for this circuit. However, there is still work to do. We’ve found a few good things related to the electronic settings and other things that we can discard. But that is exactly what tests are for and we’re still not even close to the start of the season. At the next tests in Qatar, where the track is dirty and slippery, it will be an ideal chance to work on the electronics of the bike.”

Troy Bayliss, Camel Honda: 1m30.98s - 85 laps - “I did the same time on race tyres today as I did yesterday, which is more or less the same as I did at the GP here last October on qualifiers (1m 30.87s). We’re still not up there with the fast guys but we’re not far off.  We’ve worked a lot over these few days and we will continue to do so at the next tests in Qatar. I can’t wait to get there actually – not because I like the track particularly but I just want to improve. In any case I’m leaving here lot happier than Malaysia.”

Santiago Mulero, Camel Honda- Troy Bayliss’ Chief Engineer - “We’re still working hard. Today was more or less the same as yesterday in terms of lap times but the important thing is that Troy is lapping consistently with a good pace. In Malaysia we didn’t make much progress but here we have, so I think we should continue like this, making gradual progress with every lap without confusing matters.”

Telefonica MoviStar Honda: Sete Gibernau, Telefonica MoviStar Honda: Completed his test on day two.
Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: Did not test due to severe bruising sustained in a crash on the first day of the test.