Marco Melandri and Toni Elias were back on track today as the second MotoGP test of 2007 resumed at Phillip Island, Australia. The fine weather allowed the Gresini Honda riders to continue the development of the bike. They both improved on the race pace and lap time as they worked on suspensions, chassis and Bridgestone tyre testing.
Both Marco and Toni did a great job and completed an impressive 99 laps for the Italian rider, 90 for the Spaniard. In particular, Melandri found a good feeling with the bike from the beginning and a good race pace that allowed him to carry out the tyre testing programme with very positive results.
His team mate, Toni Elias, improved his lap time of 6 tenths from yesterday and was more confident. He tested many tyres and found a good solution for his characteristics.
MARCO MELANDRI (99 laps, 1.30.70):
“I’m quite satisfied. I like the bike and today we focused on tyre testing. We completed an impressive 99 laps. We tested many tyres and now we have decided the line to follow. I didn’t improve too much my lap time on a single lap but the race pace was good. In the morning we started with yesterday setting and I had a good feeling from the beginning, then, during the day, we tested some different set up solutions but we didn’t got the results we wanted, this slowed down the work programme so I couldn’t make further improvements in the lap time. From a physical point, the 800cc is quite demanding as the old 1000, in fact it is faster in the corner but it is has the same weight of the 1000cc”.
TONI ELIAS (90 laps, 1.31.40):
“This morning we struggled a bit but then we found a good solution that allowed us to make a small step forward. We tested several tyres and found one that is good to my characteristics, this allowed me to improve also my feeling with the bike. Tomorrow we will keep on working in this direction and further improvements are expected. In fact it’s very important to create a good base and find a good compromise for the Honda-Bridgestone package”.
UNOFFICIAL LAPTIMES
1. Alex Barros, D’Antin Ducati 1m 30.01s 2. Loris Capirossi, Marlboro Ducati: 1m 30.34s. 3. Casey Stoner, MarlboroDucati: 1m 30.39s. 4. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 30.45s. 5. Alex Hofmann, D’Antin Ducati: 1m 30.60s. 6. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 30.61s. 7. Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 30.70s. 8. Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 1m 30.84s. 9. Chris Vermeulen, Rizla Suzuki: 1m 31.19s. 10. Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 31.35s. 11. Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 1m 31.40s. 12. Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR212V: 1m 31.55s.. 13. John Hopkins, Rizla Suzuki: 1m 31.63s
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