MotoGP 2006 - Catalunya Test (March 3/4/5) -

MotoGP pre-season testing came to a close when the teams and riders ended their three-day IRTA test at Jerez today. The next time they fire up their 990cc four-stroke grand prix machines it will mark the start of the 17-round world championship which opens on the same 4.423 km Jerez circuit on March 26.

Honda fields its youngest ever senior class line up for a championship campaign this year. The six RCV riders have a good balance between youth and experience averaging 23 years of age, with Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner the youngest at 20, Makoto Tamada the elder statesman at 29. Nicky Hayden 24, Marco Melandri 23, and Toni Elias, a 24 year old complete the line up.

In addition Team Roberts have chosen Honda power for their all-new for the
2006 season KR211V. The RCV engine housed in a Team Roberts built rolling chassis. Kenny Roberts Jnr will race the machine he has helped develop since the drawing board stage.

On the last day of the three-day test the Repsol Honda pairing of Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden set the pace for their fellow RC211V riders to chase. Pedrosa ended the day with a flourish setting fourth fastest time of the day, Hayden a tenth of a second behind in sixth.

Both riders worked hard on race simulations using the latest Michelin rubber. While Hayden feels he improved the rear end of his all-new 2006 factory machine he hopes for more feeling from the machine at the grand prix.

MotoGP debutante Pedrosa is on a fast learning curve but ends winter testing in better shape than he could have hoped for. The young Spaniard has improved each time out on the 240 hp plus RC211V but the real test comes when he returns to Jerez to race.

Fortuna Honda riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elias emerged from the final day of testing in confident mood. Both men spent the day tyre testing running a series of tests on 2006 race rubber. Melandri set his fastest time of the day on lap 12 of a 15-lap session on race tyres. While Elias worked his way through an intensive tyre testing programme ending the day more as one with his RCV than at any time during winter testing.

Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda) ended the day faster than yesterday but the gritty Japanese rider is still searching for the optimum base setting for his RCV. He is still trying to eliminate the chatter problems he ran into yesterday.

Kenny Roberts Jnr ended the test with fifth fastest time aboard the KR211V.
Roberts spent the day gathering as much data as possible for the team before they return to their UK base to decide upon the next phase of chassis development.

Honda rider Lap times and quotes.

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 40.570s - 109 laps."Well all the testing's all over and now it's time for the real deal. Next time we get on the bikes it'll be showtime. I'd like to say we're right there and everything's all gravy but the truth is still couldn't quite get the bike to stay in line and get hooked up as good as we wanted. We've made some progress today and at the end we put on some soft tyres, not qualifiers, just to see what it would do and that definitely helped my lap time a lot. And I did a full race run to get a feeling but I it was hard to maintain the pace. Nonetheless, I'm excited to go racing. Testing's cool but going toe-to-toe with the boys is the fun part!."

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 40.416s - 81 laps. "It's been a very good pre-season for me because each time on the bike I've been able to improve step-by-step. I did a lot of laps over the winter and this is very useful to get to know the bike because the step up from the 250 to MotoGP is much bigger than the step from 125 to 250. Physically I'm getting stronger and this will continue throughout the year. I'm starting to understand how the tyres work, though I need more experience with the electronics, on race starts and qualification tyres. I don't know if I'm ready for round one - we'll have to wait and see!"

Makoto Tanaka - Repsol Honda Team Manager. "We have worked through a demanding menu of testing here, in readiness for the up-coming Spanish GP.
Both Nicky and Dani have done lots of laps. Thanks to all of our staff, they all worked very hard during this pre-season test schedule. Dani showed very good progress today, especially with his consistency during the long run with race tyres. Dani made good progress, more than what we hoped, so we are very much looking forward to the opening race. We are the quickest Michelin runner throughout three days of testing here and Nicky showed good speed and he gave us the top two times of the Michelin runners. But Nicky hasn't got the perfect set-up yet and we still have a lot of work to do to improve his machine for the race. We have some positive feeling from a good race tyre pace but still need more hard work. We'll do our best to ensure a good race here in Jerez."

Toni Elias, Fortuna Honda: 1m 40.753s - 101 laps. "Today we concluded our pre-season testing plans. My evaluation of the work done by all the team is very positive, in that respect I'm very satisfied. We have improved steadily which has allowed us to lap faster and also helped me feel more comfortable on the bike, which I think is the most important thing. I must thank Michelin for all the work they have done. I can't wait to race here at Jerez in front of these great fans – the atmosphere here during race weekends is really fantastic."

Marco Melandri, Fortuna Honda: 1m 41.208s - 82 laps. "Overall we are very satisfied with the close work we have done with Michelin. I must say I am very happy with the performance of the tyres. At around midday I posted my best time of the day, (1m 41.208s), on my 12th lap. We still have to improve further, but I am confident."

Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolts Honda: 1m 41.380s - 88 laps. "These three days test have been useful to define the setting to use for the race but I am not completely satisfied because we did not completely solve the chattering problem I felt yesterday. Actually, today I have been able to slightly improve the performance and, above all, I run more constantly on the 1'41" pace. In order to be absolutely competitive, in the two days of Grand Prix tests we should find the way to better our performance of approximately 0.5seconds a lap."

Giulio Bernardelle - Konica Minolta Honda Technical Director "Even today we have continued testing different suspensions setting solutions, working in particular on the swing arm and attempting to solve the chattering problem annoying Makoto in the last braking phase. As concerns the choice of the race tyres, we have nearly defined the front one while we still have to work on the rear tyre. We have tried to make the most of the time we had at our disposal to define the race setting deciding not to test with a qualifying setting. Apart from this, we still have some work to do that we intend to complete in the first two free practice hours of the first Grand Prix of the Championship."

Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR Honda: 1m 41.673s - 108 laps. Team Manager Chuck Aksland said: "We ran with pretty much the same stuff we ran yesterday just confirming a few things we learned so far and we got some quality data at the end of the day. The chassis is working well but now we have to study what we have before moving forward."