“We made some progress today”World Champion Nicky Hayden stayed on for a profitable second day of testing at Jerez on Tuesday following Sunday's 27-lap Grand Prix of Spain.
The 25-year-old American continued to work with his crew on further developments to the 800cc
factory Honda RC212V he's campaigning in the 2007 season. Hayden was joined at the 4.423km (2.747 miles) Jerez circuit today by ten other MotoGP riders, plus HRC test rider Tady Okada.
Though the track was wet in the morning, by 1.30pm the surface had dried enough for Hayden to begin evaluating a modified chassis and trying various suspension set-up options in combination with a range of Michelin tyres.
Working through an extensive testing programme, the World Champion chose not to fit sticky qualifying tyres towards the end of the day, preferring to run with race rubber until the chequered flag came out at 6pm. With a gap of three clear weekends before the next Grand Prix, the data and feedback gathered at this test will be analysed by the team ahead of the forthcoming races at Turkey (April 22) and China (May 6).
Having carried a useful day of testing in wet conditions yesterday, Hayden's Repsol Honda team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, who finished second in Sunday's race, elected not to test today.
Nicky Hayden Best lap time: 1m 41.900s - 72 laps
"It took a while for the circuit to dry out this morning but this afternoon I got some useful track time.
We did some work with a modified chassis and towards the end of the day we found a direction that improved the feel of the package. I'm not going to try to hide the fact that things haven't quite gone to plan in the first two races and we've still got a lot of work to do but we made some progress today. As much as I'd love to go straight to Turkey, I'll use these few weeks off to think about a few things and try to make that step up needed to get back up front. Thanks to team and to HRC because all those guys stayed here and worked really hard - we're all in this together."
Repsol Honda
