KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team completes successful test at Brno Shinya Nakano and a number of his fellow MotoGP riders remained at the 3.36-mile Brno circuit in the Czech Republic today to take part in the last test session of the 2007 season. The main aim of the test for the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team has been to evaluate a range of new components received from HRC in time for last weekend’s race. Nakano took to the track at 10am this morning, focussing on some new chassis and suspension settings for his Honda RC212V. After lunch the 29-year-old’s work continued, this time trying some new Michelin front tyres. The test ended prematurely at 4.30pm when rain began to fall. In total Shinya completed 45 laps during the day, setting a best lap-time of 1’59.760″. The MotoGP season now enters its final six races, with the series returning to the revised Misano circuit for the first time since 1993 in just over a week’s time. Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (54 laps 1’59.760″) “Even if we didn’t find a final solution for the chattering problems which have afflicted us here last weekend, at the end of the day I can say that we were able to find some improvements in the bike’s settings and improve our choices for the front tyre. We completed all the necessary tests that enable us to understand a little better how the new chassis works. Today has been very useful for us and vital for the next race in Misano.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Today we have been able to make adjustments to the updated bike and see if there are any improvements out on track. This is very important for us, as the next MotoGP race will be at a completely renovated track, which is very different to the last time GP bikes rode there. Therefore at Misano, it will be important to start with a machine setting that we already have and one that Shinya understands so he can be confident on track as soon as possible. Today has allowed us to find some improvements in our performance even if we didn’t find a final solution to the chattering problem. This remains the most important aspect of our machine that we need to solve at the next GP.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: POSITIVE TESTING SESSION FOR THE DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM The day after the fantastic victory of Casey Stoner in the Czech Republic GP, the Ducati Marlboro Team were out on the track again for a supplementary two-days testing session at the Brno Circuit. Stoner and Capirossi were able to make the best use of the time available before the rain put an early end to the test at 4:00 p.m. Casey Stoner, 50 laps – best lap with race tyre 1’58.254 – best lap with qualifying tyre 1’56.901 Today was reasonably busy – we didn’t do a lot of laps but we did some very good and very important test with some new equipment. We had a new fairing which went very well. We had good results with and this is a positive thing for the rest of the season. We had also a lot of tyres to test and there were a couple of rears we were very happy with. We tested the new fairing in the afternoon and we didn’t have new tyres so we use an old ones: we were do consistently 1’58.7, 1’58.9 already with seventeenth laps on the tyres so it was working quite well: we were happy with it and with everything we tested today. We are not sure exactly when we will use the new fairing in race because I think we have to find a little bit more information with it but this is the right direction. I did 1’56.901 with a qualifying tyre, which is not so bad, so I’m pretty happy with the job I’m doing with my team. Loris Capirossi, 50 laps – best lap with race tyre 1’58.767 Today with a lot of time available we could work a lot on the set up and we could try many things. For sure I made a mistake when I chose my tyre allocation on Thursday because today I tested the front tyre I hadn’t available and I lapped a lot faster than in the yesterday’s race. We bettered also the bike’s set up and the new fairing seems promising and can be interesting for the next races. We tested also a couple of new tyres which I like, but we have to work a bit more on them”. More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Monday August 20, 2007. Brno Circuit, Brno, Czech Republic HAYDEN AND PEDROSA PUT IN THE MILES AT BRNO TEST The Repsol Honda Team remained at Brno on Monday for the first of two days of testing following yesterday’s Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. Fresh from their third and fourth place finishes, Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa were joined by most of the MotoGP field as the factory Honda pair began a full schedule of testing, including further analysis of the RC212V ‘s updated chassis and the latest evolution of the 800cc engine. In the morning Nicky Hayden carried out tests of new chassis components in pursuit of further handling improvements at the 5.403km (3.357-mile) Brno circuit. During the afternoon the World Champion began a series of evaluation runs on new tyres from Michelin until rain at 16.30 brought the test to a finish. Hayden lapped consistently in the 1m 58s bracket and was able to log a best lap time of 1m 58.42s nearly three tenths of a second inside his fastest lap from yesterday’s 22-lap race. Dani Pedrosa also increased his pace today, lapping in 1m 58.55s which was an improvement of 0.4s on his best from yesterday. The 21-year-old Spaniard spent the day analysing the RC212V’s uprated frame in combination with the latest engine the Repsol Honda pair used over the race weekend. Weather permitting, Pedrosa will begin tyre testing for Michelin tomorrow before the trucks are loaded up once again ready for the trip to the Misano World Circuit in Italy where the Grand Prix of San Marino takes place on September 2. Nicky Hayden Best lap time: 1m 58.42s 76 laps “Today’s session went okay. This morning we tested some new components and worked on the set-up of the machine with the updated chassis. In the afternoon we mainly tested some different tyres for Michelin and we were able to string some 1m 58s laps together. Doing it on Monday is always a little bit late but certainly we had a lot more consistency today and some more speed too. Then in the afternoon we tested tyres until the rain came and we called it a day. We’ll see what the weather throws at us tomorrow and get back to work.” Dani Pedrosa Best lap time: 1m 58.55s 66 laps “We concentrated on testing some new parts for the RC212V today things that we were not able to use over the race weekend. They were not big changes and the differences are subtle but I think we found some useful information from the test. Today we didn’t take a big step forward though we have some ideas of where we can improve things further. We were concentrating on the chassis and engine so we didn’t test tyres today. If the weather is kind to us we’ll continue with this and test tyres tomorrow.” Unofficial lap times and tyres (Q= Qualifying tyre used) 1. Casey Stoner (Ducati), 1:57.07Q 2. John Hopkins (Suzuki), 1:57.71Q 3. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda Team), 1:58.42 4. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), 1:58.55 5. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), 1:58.60 6. Loris Capirossi (Ducati), 1:58.83 7. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), 1:58.90 8. Carlos Checa (Honda), 1:59.08 9. Alex Barros (Ducati), 1:59.10 10. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), 1:59.20 11. Randy De Puniet (Kawasaki), 1:59.35 12. Anthony West (Kawasaki), 1:59.47 13. Shinya Nakano (Honda), 1:59.78 14. Sylvain Guintoli (Yamaha), 1:59.80 15. Makoto Tamada (Yamaha), 2:00.23 16. Kurtis Roberts (KR-Honda), 2:00.31 More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: FIAT YAMAHA TEAM PUSH ON WITH INTENSIVE DAY’S TESTING IN BRNO After the disappointment of yesterday’s Czech Grand Prix, it was back to the drawing board today for Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards as they embarked on the traditional two-day test at Brno, alongside almost the entire MotoGP paddock. The sun shone until mid-afternoon when it clouded over, eventually giving way to rain at about 4.30 pm. The main focus of the test for both riders is tyre testing with Michelin and they worked through a variety of new material today as they seek to find a better package for the remaining six races, following recent issues. Rossi also got the chance to complete some laps with a new-specification engine, with which he will continue working tomorrow. Colin Edwards Position: 6th Time: 1’58.81 Laps: 51 “Michelin brought a lot of new stuff for us to try here today and I think, in total, I tried about four fronts and maybe five rears before the rain came. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like we’ve found a miracle yet! We’re in a difficult situation but I am determined to give 110% to help Michelin get back to where they should be. I tried a new shock for Ohlins as well and some starting maps and electronics and everything else seems to be feeling pretty good. We’ve got another day tomorrow so let’s hope it stays dry so we can get through the remainder of our testing programme.” Valentino Rossi Position: 10th Time: 1’59.20 Laps: 66 “We tried a new engine today and I completed about 25 laps with it. Initially we haven’t found that it’s a lot faster, but anyway this is only the very first step so we need some more time to understand it better and to see how it can help us. Tomorrow we will continue to work with it again, for part of the day at least. We also did some work with tyres, but so far we haven’t found anything special. We tried some new fronts but then, when we started to work with some new rear tyres it started to rain and so we weren’t able to finish our work. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to use the whole day, because we still have a lot of work to get through and this is a very important test for us.”