MotoGP: Hayden leads the way in Jerez testing

[Rory Phoulorie]

By Jonathan Noble Saturday, February 16th 2008, 17:14 GMT


Nicky Hayden showed that his Repsol Honda team and Michelin had made progress this winter when he topped the times on the first day of this weekend's official MotoGP test at Jerez in Spain.

The American set a best lap of 1m39.200 seconds on his 84th lap, which at that stage of proceedings put him one second clear of the opposition.

But although a lot of his rivals managed to close the gap as they tried late-run qualifying laps at the end of the day, nearest challenger Randy de Puniet on the LCR Honda was still left 0.244 seconds adrift.

Jorge Lorenzo on the Michelin-shod Fiat Yamaha ended the day third quickest, while Tech 3 Yamaha duo Colin Edwards and James Toseland continued to show the progress their team had made in switching to Michelins to end the test fourth and fifth fastest on the timesheets.

Morning pace setter Valentino Rossi could manage no better than eighth on the timesheets, as he ended up behind the Honda Gresini duo of Alex de Angelis and Shinya Nakano - who were the fastest Bridgestone runners.

Rossi was far from downbeat about his final placing in the standings, though.

"For the first day it's not so bad at all, I feel good with the tyres and the balance and power of the engine is also okay," he said. "Of course we�re not at 100% and we need to improve in some areas, especially in the entry to the corner where we�re not yet at the maximum.

"We tried a new generation of Bridgestone qualifying tyre today, whilst tomorrow we will have the more standard tyre, which we were very fast with in Sepang, so I think we will be able to fight with the others in the 'qualifying� session. Overall we�ve made a very good start and I feel confident that we can continue to be even faster tomorrow."

Despite slipping down the order late on, Rossi still ended the day ahead of MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, whose ninth fastest time was more than 1.4 seconds behind Hayden.

Hayden's teammate Dani Pedrosa made his return to action for the first time since hurting his hand in a crash at Sepang, but he was only able to complete 37 laps. The Spaniard was seen applying an ice pack to his hand each time he got off the bike

The other returning rider, Kawasaki's John Hopkins, also had a limited outing as he completed just 26 laps as he worked on recovering from the thigh injury he picked up in his crash during Phillip Island testing.

Pos Rider Bike Time Laps
1. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:39.200 107
2. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 1:39.444 + 0.244 82
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1:39.528 + 0.328 94
4. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:39.629 + 0.429 78
5. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:39.678 + 0.478 91
6. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1:40.165 + 0.965 75
7. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:40.192 + 0.992 82
8. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:40.641 + 1.441 92
9. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:40.651 + 1.451 66
10. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:40.767 + 1.567 58
11. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1:40.843 + 1.643 64
12. Daniel Pedrosa Honda (M) 1:41.352 + 2.152 37
13. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:41.392 + 2.192 83
14. Toni Elias Ducati (B) 1:41.703 + 2.503 91
15. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:41.763 + 2.563 79
16. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:41.821 + 2.621 83
17. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1:41.901 + 2.701 26
18. Olivier Jacque Kawasaki (B) 1:42.557 + 3.357 67
19. Niccolo Canepa Ducati (B) 1:42.652 + 3.452 61
20. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:42.698 + 3.498 68
21. V. Guareschi Ducati (B) 1:43.435 + 4.235 66

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