The second official MotoGP pre-season test kicked off today at the Sepang International Circuit: Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini riders, Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding, resumed their work programmes from the earlier Malaysia gathering of three weeks ago, with the Spaniard immediately showing a consistent performance that led him to end the first day of testing at the top of the time sheets.
Bautista, who spent the day working on suspension solutions with Showa, topped the classification with a personal best of 2’00”848, already close to his best lap time with which he finished the first Malaysian test, despite track conditions not as favourable as they were earlier in February.
His team-mate, Scott Redding, worked on suspension and on chassis geometry, clocking an encouraging 2’03”553, that improves what the British rookie obtained in the first test day in early February, despite worst track conditions.
Alvaro Bautista (2'00"848 - 61 LAPS)
“It's been a very positive first day of testing! We worked very well on the rear end, an area that earlier this month gave us some problems, getting excellent results: Showa has developed a new shock absorber somewhat different compared to the one we used so far, which is suitable for our needs. In addition to the good lap times, even though the track was worst than the first test, I am especially pleased because my feeling with the new Bridgestone tyres has improved so much and now I feel comfortable when riding. We are on the right path: tomorrow morning we will continue to work hard, focusing also on the front end, while in the afternoon if we get the chance we would like to try a first long run”.
Scott Redding(2'03"553 - 51 LAPS)
“Today we worked pretty well, especially at the beginning of the day, trying some suspension solutions and varying bike position; however, it seems that we are stuck on these lap times: at the moment we are not able to find something that allows us make a significant step forward, therefore our lap times are always the same. We must take into consideration that today the track was not in the best conditions, so it's good that Hayden went fast anyway: this makes us confident. We are convinced that we can close the gap to Nicky, but we need to find a solution to improve. Tomorrow we will continue to work, especially with regard to braking, while on the electronics side we have already reached a quite good setting”.
Go&Fun Honda Gresini Press Release
