Testing occured for the new year's version of their Honda RC212V engines at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit this week.  Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso were happy with the outcome and results as they prepare for next season.

Pedrosa was trialling Ohlins suspension and claimed the second fastest lap on the last day of testing on Wednesday with a 1’31.944.

“We had a good day out there. The track conditions were very good and there was a lot of grip, so we were able to improve our speed quite a lot,” states Pedrosa. “My feeling with the new suspension really improved and that was our main focus here. It’s a big change because I’ve been riding with Showa (suspension) since 2003, so of course it takes a while to get used to something new. We didn’t spend a lot of time working specifically on adjustments with the new chassis because it was important to concentrate on one thing at a time.”

Dovizioso, who incurred a hairline fracture to his left hip with a fall was back on his engine on Wednesday as he gained his best time over the three days in the last session with a time of 1’32.825.

“We confirmed some of the setting improvements we found earlier, and we also tested some solutions that we couldn’t get round to on Tuesday because of my crash,” explains the Italian. “I improved my lap time and I was able to go faster than during the whole race weekend, so this is positive. All in all I’m very confident because I could lap at 1’32.8 at the end of today’s session, and this lap time is as good as race pace.”

He adds, “The stability while braking has improved and I think that we are working in the right direction, though we still need to take a step forward. For instance, we can still improve the drivability on the exit of corners and that’s something we’ll work on in February.”