Honda Tests at Suzuka

Brent Avis
by Brent Avis
On the opening day of the 2 days HRC test at the Suzuka circuit, Japan, theRepsol Honda Riders and Team technicians spent their time finding optimumsettings for the RC211 V - four stoke Honda.

Team Rider Valentino Rossi and Tohru Ukawa have virtually no Suzukaexperience with the 5 cylinder 990cc RCV, and spent the majority of theirtime testing new parts for engine and suspension...

Tomorrow the test continues when the riders will develop new parts inreadyness for the final pre-season test next week.

Valentino Rossi: 2:05.710
"At the beginning of the test I had problems with traction and thesuspension settings. But in the afternoon I began to understand better howto work on the RCV to find the best settings for me."

"Suzuka circuit is one of the most difficult tracks to set up a bike forracing. For example Suzuka feels much harder to work for me than Sepang.But after today I'm confident we are working in the right direction."

Tohru Ukawa: 2:06.310
"Although I know the Suzuka circuit well, today we were slow to find goodsettings for the RCV. After discussing everything with Valentino we bothunderstand the direction we should take with this machine."

"At the end of the day I was satisfied with my lap times and with thesettings I found. I am sure that tomorrow we will progress further and Iwill set better times."

Team Fortuna Honda Gresini, also attended the Suzuka test. Team riderDaijiro Katoh, the reigning 250cc Champion, was testing the team NSR 500cc-four cylinder- two stroke for the first time at the 5.859 km long Japanesecircuit.Daijiro Katoh set a time of 2:07.3s

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Brent Avis
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