With the switch to 1000cc bikes months of development, testing and hard work have gone into the preparing the RC213V for this season. Having swept the rider, team and constructor titles in 2011, Honda has to work extra hard to impress its fans.
Stoner’s record in Losail circuit is impressive, with 4 pole positions and 4 wins out of six in the MotoGP class.
The Repsol Honda Team finished the second day of practice at Losail circuit with Casey Stoner in third position and Dani Pedrosa fifth both of them riding the RC213V.
Stoner set the fastest time in FP2 and was leading in FP3 until others put on a new soft rear to take the fastest time of the day. Casey improved his lap time by 0.3 in the evening even though he remained on hard tyres until the end, not unlike what Rossi was doing.
Dani Pedrosa crashed in FP2, without sustaining any injury, and was only able to use one bike in the second session of the evening, whilst his mechanics worked hard to build up the damaged machine. Nevertheless, Dani also improved his lap time by half a second from one session to the other.
Casey Stoner
FP3 3rd (1’55.674)
“Today has been pretty good for us in general, we has some issues in the first two sessions but we’ve fixed them slightly in last one which is definitely positive. We’ve been able to turn down the electronics a lot more and now I have more feeling and connection with the rear tyre which gave me a lot more confidence. This allowed me to do some good lap times with some pretty old tyres. A few people got in our way throughout the session so we were unable to show what we were really capable of, but we know how we feel and we’re confident for qualifying tomorrow”.
FP2 1st (1’55.960)
FP1 1st (1’56.474)
“The track tonight wasn’t so bad, I expected the conditions to be much worse but in general it was ok. We started this evening with huge chatter issues and I was a little afraid we couldn’t fix this but after a few more exits we managed to reduce it to a more comfortable level. This is a positive point for the weekend but with such a short session and then nothing until tomorrow it’s slightly strange. It was an ok start tonight, we finished quickest which is good but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for some real track time and with the conditions a little better and see where we are”.
Dani Pedrosa
FP3 5th 1’56.114
“The day wasn’t as good for us as we would have liked. I had some problems with the electronics and I couldn’t ride at a hundred percent, especially in the exits of the corners where we have more issues. Let’s hope the mechanics can find a solution and we can have a good qualifying session tomorrow. The crash in the first session was totally unexpected; it was on my first lap of the second exit and I was not pushing at all. But I escaped unhurt and do it’s ok”.
FP2 5th (1’57.130)
FP1 6th (1’56.697)
“There are some corners where we are struggling a lot with the chattering, especially in the area where you slide more, but it’s like this and we will need to adapt the best we can. On my first exit I had an issue with the tyres and I had to stop in the garage; I felt a vibration in the wheels, so we decided to change both tyres. I lost some time there and at the end of the practice I went wide twice. Anyway, it’s been good to go out there and get the feeling back at this track after a long time without riding here. Tomorrow, with two practices sessions, we will start working more with the chassis and electronics to improve and prepare for the race”.
