The Sepang official MotoGP winter testing has come to a conclusion today for GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding: both riders leave the Malaysian track in high spirits, having obtained a good feeling aboard their bikes, the ‘Factory’ Honda RC213V and the ‘Open’ Honda RCV1000R respectively.
After yesterday’s successful race simulation, Alvaro Bautista spent the last day of testing focusing on different details about suspension, brakes and electronics. The Spaniard finished the day with the sixth best time, 2’00”506, obtained in the morning but also replicated in the latter part of the day, with very high temperatures on track, proving that there’s still room for improvement.
Scott Redding concluded his first two MotoGP testing sessions costantly improving his lap times. The 2013 Moto2 runner-up got to grips with the Honda RCV1000R adopting a smoother riding style, working especially on stability under braking and refining the electronics. The young British rider lowered his lap time from yesterday by 0.4 of a second, with a best time of 2’02”228 after clocking up 50 laps around the Sepang track.
Alvaro Bautista (2'00"506 - 60 LAPS)
“These six days of testing in Malaysia have been very hard because we faced very difficult conditions, but we are really happy because we have improved so much throughout the two testing sessions, reaching a good feeling with the bike. After the great work done in the first two days, today we could focus on some details with regard to the Showa front fork, as well as the Nissin brakes . In addition, we have refined the electronic controls . At the end of the day I managed to repeat the lap times obtained in the morning, when the track was cooler: it means that we are working in the right direction, and that there is still room for improvement . Moreover, even though the new rear shock already goes very well, enabling us to maintain a good pace for several consecutive laps, even when the tyre starts to wear out, we have not yet explored all the possible settings . Therefore in the next test in Qatar we will continue to work on this aspect, also trying to improve our qualifying performance”.
Scott Redding (2'02"228 - 50 LAPS)
“I am very happy with how these three days of testing went! The situation has improved a lot since the first test earlier this month; we found a good direction to work on the bike and now I also feel much more confident when riding. Initially I was very aggressive, but now I'm trying to adopt a softer and smoother riding style, and this is helping me a lot also to work on the bike set-up. Today we have also seen progress under braking, where, however, we need to work on consistency, and also in terms of electronics. We are confident ahead of the next test in Qatar: we will start from the data collected here in Malaysia and we'll see how it goes, considering that we will face a completely different track and conditions”.
Go&Fun Honda Gresini Press Release
