 Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden spent a cold wet second, and final day of the HRC test at Valencia evaluating Michelin tyres for the Honda RC211V. American Hayden covered a total of 42 laps at the 4.005 km Spanish circuit trying a variety of full wet an intermediate tyres for the French manufacturer.
Weather conditions ranged from a few brief showers to one hard downpour allowing the young American to gauge the performance of full wet rubber and a range of intermediate tyres under development at Michelin. The wet track temperature never rose above 14 degrees restricting the lap time to 1m 45.74s.
With two successful and productive days of testing completed the team return to Japan to prepare the RCVs for the final MotoGP test of the year at Sepang, Malaysia, on November 28, 29, 30 next.
The Fortuna Honda team of Marco Melandri and Toni Elias attended the opening day of the test only while the younger inexperienced RCV riders elected not to test in the harzardous half wet – half dry track conditions.
Nicky Hayden: 1m 45.74s – 42 laps.
The weather is what it is, not ideal but we gained a little experience with the Michelin wet tyres and a couple of intermediates. It would have been nice to have hard rain today because I definitely didn’t set the world on fire in wet races this year. We tried a couple of suspension changes for damp conditions and a little different geometry on the bike. It feels fast when you are out there on your own but you don’t really have anybody to compare it with. We go to Malaysia next where the weather will be a bit warmer than its been here, that’s for sure.
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