Italian Max Biaggi was the fastest man on track during the second day of the three-day MotoGP test at Sepang, Malaysia today. Repsol Honda team rider Biaggi and teammate Nicky Hayden, who set the third fastest time of the day, had quickly established a solid base set up for their 990cc V5 Honda RC211V yesterday and spent today running tests on a variety of chassis parts.

Hayden was in particularly buoyant mood at the end of his second day on the new RCV. The young American feels the 2005 machine is more stable than its predecessor and he consistently lapped the 5.548km circuit one second faster than his best race lap at the circuit last October.

Biaggi worked hard all on all aspects of the machine placing special emphasis on variety of chassis parts HRC wished to test. Despite the slippery track conditions Biaggi's effort was rewarded with fastest lap of the day.

Sete Gibernau, fastest Honda rider on the opening day of the test, ended day two with second fastest time overall, sandwiched between the Repsol Honda riders. The Spanish Telefonica MoviStar Honda rider spent the day analysing the potential of a variety of chassis parts running with different Michelin tyres.

Teammate Marco Melandri is on the verge of his first season with the V5 990cc RC211V and Has wisely adopted a step by step policy with the 240PS plus Telefonica liveried Honda. The former 250c World Champion ran with a constant high rhythm as he tried out various electronic control variations in his bid to find a fast consistent pace.

The Camel Honda team riders, Alex Barros and Troy Bayliss, were the busiest men on track in the stifling heat. Brazilian Barros putting in 84 laps with Bayliss not far behind with 77. Barros ended the second day of testing in the best position of the two men. He has almost completed his test schedule and will dedicate the final day to minor changes in preparation for the next test, at Phillip Island, Australia, next week.

Bayliss has yet to find the optimal base settings for his RC211V and until he does he cannot make progress on tyre testing. The Australian will sit down with his team technicians and the HRC race engineers to study all data gathered over the opening two days of the test in the hope that between them they will find the way forward.

Makoto Tamada returned to a semblance of fitness for the second day of the test. The Konica Minolta Honda rider shrugged off the worst effects of his bout of flu to begin serious tyre testing on his RC211V. The Japanese star took a break when the temperatures were at their highest in a bid to reserve his strength. A wise decision as Tamada ended the day in optimistic mood with a lap time of 2m 01.83s,half a second faster than yesterday.
Tamada now feels more and more comfortable on the new machine with each test session.

Honda rider lap times and quotes:
Max Biaggi - Repsol Honda: 2m 01.50s - 62 laps.
"The fast lap time didn't really matter yesterday and it doesn't matter too much today but it's still good to record the fastest lap of the day – for everyone in the team, from the last technician to the first engineer. But we are still at the beginning of a long path and we still have a lot of new parts to try so the hard work will continue tomorrow. I didn't even try new tyres today - the track is very slippy because of the high temperature and humidity but tomorrow we will try the new tyres from Michelin."

Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda: 2m 01.71s - 69 laps.
"I've had a much better day today. I gave yesterday's test a lot of thought last night and came out fresh this morning and put a quick lap in straight away. We've made a lot of improvements to the machine set-up today and the new chassis parts certainly are giving the machine more stability and it feels much better on entry into the corners. I put in a run on a race tyre today and was consistently one second faster than my best lap in the race last year. The endurance run was good because I really struggle in the heat at the hot races in Barcelona and Mugello and of course here. I'm confident of getting a faster lap tomorrow, we've really started to get the bike working well here."

Makoto Tanaka - Repsol Honda Team Manager "We made a lot of progress today and Max Biaggi made a good lap time at the end of the day. Nicky Hayden was again very impressive as he continues to improve. The riders tested new chassis parts today and the result was good.
We've found some good settings and a good direction which we will now aim to improve upon in the next tests in Australia, Qatar and Spain."

Sete Gibernau - Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 2m 01.686s "We did a good job today. We worked hard in understanding what we have and we had some more things to test. We focused on chassis, tyre testing and electronics, working in different directions in order to study the behaviour of every single thing. I think I have selected the best of what I have and tonight my mechanics will work to prepare the best combination.
The base we have is good, the bike has a better balance. There is still some work to do especially to make the bike more stable in braking. All in all I'm very satisfied of the work we are doing and the relationship with Honda and Michelin."

Marco Melandri - Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 2m 02.429s "I'm happy of the work done, I have improved my lap time and I'm gaining in consistency. I'm concentrated in having a constant rhythm because I want to work for the race. Today we worked on electronics, trying different solutions. During hot hours, I lapped concentrating in understanding the bike. Tomorrow I'd like to try a long run."

Alex Barros - Camel Honda: 2m 01.78s - 84 laps.
"I'm completely happy with the work we are doing. Today we focused on tyres and I certainly think we've made steps forward. I didn't stop for lunch until we did everything we had to on both the fronts and the rears because we were finishing off the work we started three weeks ago. In these first two days: we've basically achieved the objectives we set ourselves in the first session here in Sepang. Perhaps there's a few little things that could improve the front tyre, but I don't think that will be possible for Australia, it's too close; probably in the Qatar tests. In the afternoon we tried to change a few things in the bike settings but we haven't really seen any particular changes we can make at the moment with the bike already going so well."

Troy Bayliss - Camel Honda: 2m 03.75s - 77 laps.
"These tests are proving challenging because we still haven't got the results we wanted. We're exploring all possible solutions and we hardly took a break today. We're working hard on the clutch, but I still don't feel comfortable. We tried several different tyres, but until we get the set-up better the tyres won't change the situation too much. We are analysing the telemetry with the team and the Honda technicians, and we hope to make a good step forward tomorrow."

Makoto Tamada - Konica Minolta Honda Team: 2m 01.83s - 74 laps.
"I felt a bit better compared to yesterday, but I'm still not at my best physical conditions. Even if the flu doesn't want to go away, I can consider my self very satisfied on how things went in the first two days of test with the new Honda RC211V. The bike reacts well and I feel comfortable with it, in fact, lap times are showing that between me and the new bike there is already a good feeling. These two days of test in Sepang have been really useful for me and I consider it a good start, for a season, in which I want to be a protagonist."

Giulio Bernardelle - Konica Minolta Honda Team Technical Director "Today we have worked a lot on the adjustment of the frame and we found a better setting compare to yesterday. This will permit us tomorrow, last day of test here in Sepang, to make a race simulation to evaluate the reaction of the bike on long distance. Today we have also continued to work on the setting of the electronic system of the bike and we have tried different types of front and rear tyre that Michelin brought us. For tomorrow we are planning to make the last modifications, and this will allow us to end the Malaysian test having well-developed the 2005 material."