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MotoGP
Phillip Island – Australia – 31st January 2008
Rain affected today’s second day of MotoGP testing around the 2.764-mile Phillip Island circuit in Australia. In the morning conditions were wet, meaning that the JiR Team Scot squad spent the time constructively giving team rider Andrea Dovizioso his first proper taste of the Honda RC212V motorcycle in wet conditions.
This gave the team some important information on how to set up the 800cc MotoGP machine for the tricky conditions. In the afternoon conditions improved slightly, but overall the day was still seen as very positive as the 21-year-old Italian was able to better understand the technical package at his disposal with which he will compete with in this year’s MotoGP championship.
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
HONDA RC212V - Laps: 60
Time 3th: 1’31”074
“After our very positive first day I can also have that feeling again today, despite the weather and a small crash! Again, the main thing is that Phillip Island has never been my favourite track because the layout of the track is complicated and there are so many elevation changes. Also, the thing about this layout is that it’s close to the sea so you can imagine how slippery it can be.
Also, the strong winds you get here play a part of in dictating the track conditions, so you can imagine overall how tricky it can be to ride here in less than perfect conditions! Still, overall we are satisfied at the result we achieved today and the feeling from the Honda on Michelin tyre is very good. I was fast in wet conditions with lap times very close to the times you would expect in wet races here, so I am happy. In the afternoon the racetrack was drier but the temperature was particularly low, but we know conditions will be better tomorrow – one day of rain is enough thank you!”
Pietro Caprara – Technical Director, JiR Team Scot
“Today was a day which started bad but ended very well. There is no rider that loves riding in the wet, but for us it was a very important day to better know and understand the bike and see how it works in the wet conditions and see what kind of feedback we get from changing the settings in these conditions. Nevertheless it was important to allow us to better know the Honda RC212V in these slippery and difficult conditions and the results we saw today were very positive.
Only a few riders ventured out of the pits today, but we showed that the lap-times we were doing allowed us to be second for most of the day, very close to Casey Stoner’s times. We changed the schedule of the day to fine- tune the bike in these conditions and I have to say we now have a lot of information, which will be important for the whole championship when we encounter similar weather conditions. Andrea crashed at slow speed today, but we weren’t worried – the only damage to the bike was dirt on the fairing so that made the mechanics happy, as they didn’t have extra work to do, so well done Andrea! We have another important day tomorrow and much work to do, so we are hoping that the weather will improve.”
MotoGP Phillip Island test – Day 2
1) Casey Stoner Ducati 1’ 29”938
2) Alex De Angelis Honda 1’30”449
3) Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1’31”074
4) Shinya Nakano Honda 1’31”316
5) Nicky Hayden Honda 1’31”373
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