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2008-01-22 De Puniet leads Hondas as Pedrosa sustains hand fracture
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 The first MotoGP test of 2008 got underway at the 5.542 km Sepang circuit in Malaysia today, opening day of the three-day test. In 30 degree plus conditions it was LCR Honda rider Randy De Puniet who set the pace. The Frenchman was in scintillating form all day and steadily lowered his lap time to end the first day with a time of 2m 01.377s, a massive 1.2s faster than his best ever previous lap time at the track.
Second fastest was Repsol Honda factory team rider Dani Pedrosa. The diminutive Spaniard was 0.487s down on De Puniet but his day ended badly when he lost the front end entering turn 11. Pedrosa crashed at high speed sustaining a small fracture in the second metacarpal in the fall. The RC212V caught fire and was badly damaged in the crash. Tonight Pedrosa will fly home to Spain tonight where he will see a specialist physician in Barcelona first thing tomorrow morning.
Nicky Hayden, MotoGP World Champion in 2006, got off to a slow start today but quickly settled into his usual fast consistent rhythm putting in a marathon 85 lap stint while working on geometry and suspension settings on the latest RC212V Honda prototype. The Kentuckian, riding the bike for the first time since a shoulder operation in early December, ended the day eighth fastest but content with his days work.
Gresini Honda riders Alex De Angelis and Shinya Nakano spent the first part of the day adapting the base set up of their RC212V’s to suit the 2008 chassis. Once the riders had gained confidence in the set up the team moved on to testing rear suspension link set up in a bid to improve grip and stability while testing a range of Bridgestone tyres.
De Angelis on his first visit to Sepang on the Honda RCV set impressive lap times managing to set his fastest lap of the day on a tyre that had run 16 laps. Team mate Nakano quickly found a base set up for the new for 2008 chassis and set to work on the suspension link system and testing tyres for Bridgestone.
Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scot RC212V Honda, was reasonably happy with the performance of the new chassis on the opening day. However, the young Italian is still experiencing problems under heavy braking into corners while the bike is vertical. The rear end of the machine becomes ‘light’ and Dovizioso is unable to use the rear brake to steady the machine over the final meters before banking into the corner. But Dovizioso was very upbeat about his potential for the second day of testing.
Randy De Puniet, LCR Honda: 2m 01.377s – 68 laps:
A very good day for us we have improved since the last test here and I was 1.2 seconds faster so I have to be happy with that. My target is to keep improving the set up of the bike and my feeling with the bike while riding each day we are here. The corner entry speed with the new chassis is definitely better and the lap time is good. Michelin gave me a good race tyre for this track and I have the rear end grip I missed last time I was here last November.
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2m 01.864s – 68 laps:
I wasn’t pushing so hard at the time of the crash. I lost the front going into Turn 11. It was quite a big crash – the bike caught fire and I hurt my right hand. Today it was good to be riding again after the winter break, we were working on general set-up, getting a good feel for the bike before starting some comparison tests.
Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 2m 02.558s – 85 laps:
It’s good to be back. Coming in here yesterday it was pretty cool because I had a line of mechanics and two brand new HRC factory GP bikes waiting on me, every nut and bolt was brand new, and to me that’s pretty cool. Today didn’t go the best at the start. The chassis feels different to the prototype I tested last November. It took me a while to get a good feel from the front, though towards the end of the day we made some progress, doing some geometry stuff and a little bit of suspension. I didn’t test any tyres today, we just used reference tyres because I wasn’t going fast enough. First we had to get the bike working better. The shoulder’s better, though I still need to get some more strength in it. So that’s day one in the books. Tomorrow we’ll see if we can try the pneumatic engine and test some tyres, we’ve got plenty of work to do and it’s a long way to go to Qatar.
Shinya Nakano, Gresini Honda: 2m 02.622s – 69 laps:
We started with the new chassis and found some good points the only real difficulty I had was on corner entry I couldn’t hold my line in some corners a little bit the same as last year but Bridgestone found me a good front race tyre and it improved my feeling with the bike and I set the same lap time as I did the last time we were at Sepang.
Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scot Honda: 2m 02.783s – 52 laps:
We worked a lot today on the setting of the engine brake/slipper clutch, to get a better braking ‘feel’ with the new bike. We’ve made some progress, but I think over the next few days the technicians and myself will look more at this problem to find the right solution for me, and my riding style. Everything else is very good. We all worked well together today and Michelin gave us some well-known compounds and tyres, which is important to cut down the variables when you’re testing a new machine. I think the principle difference between the 2007 and 2008 bike is how it enters into the corners and the final part of the braking zone, which as I’ve mentioned I want to improve as soon as possible. The overall feeling though is very positive and I think Honda has done a great job with this bike. The handlebar position is a little low for me at the moment and it is on the highest setting, so I know I must adapt myself to this for sure.
Alex De Angelis, Gresini Honda: 2m 03.301s – 47 laps:
Today was the first time I have ridden the RCV as I was not at the November test. I felt today was good because I didn’t have to change much on the new chassis set up. I didn’t try to change anything until I set a god lap time then we started to try out things. Today I did have a little front end chatter but it was much less than the last test at Jerez. The Bridgestone tyres worked really good today. I did a 20 plus lap run and set fastest lap on lap 16 so that was very positive.
Test times - Sepang - day 1
1. Randy De Puniet - Honda Lcr 2:01.377
2. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Hrc 2:01.864
3. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki 2:02.074
4. Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki 2:02.416
5. Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro 2:02.457
6. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 2:02.490
7. Colin Edwards - Yamaha Tech3 2:02.549
8. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Hrc 2:02.558
9. Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha Team 2:02.563
10. Shinya Nakano - Honda Gresini 2:02.622
11. John Hopkins - Kawasaki Racing 2:02.628
12. Andrea Dovizioso - Jir Team Scot 2:02.783
13. James Toseland - Yamaha Tech3 2:03.264
14. Alex De Angelis - Honda Gresini 2:03.301
15. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing 2:03.387
16. Olivier Jacque - Kawasaki Racing 2:03.863
17. Toni Elias - Alice Team 2:03.954
18. Marco Melandri - Ducati Marlboro 2:04.414
19. Niccolò Canepa - Ducati Test 2:05.580
20. Sylvain Guintoli - Alice Team 2:06.000
21. Tamaki Serizawa - Kawasaki Racing 2:23.590
Sepang Lap Record
Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2007 - 2:02.108
Sepang Best Lap
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2006 - 2:00.605
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