Repsol Honda factory team riders Dani Pedrosa and World Champion Casey Stoner topped the time sheets at the end of the two-day MotoGP test held at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit close to Valencia, the final test of 2011.
Pedrosa and Stoner have found the transition from 800cc to 1,000cc almost seamless and were fastest virtually throughout the dry and fine two days completely overshadowing their rivals as they continued testing the RC213V grand prix machine in readiness for 2012 the debut season for 1,000cc capacity regulations in MotoGP.
Pedrosa's time of 1m 31.807s, set on lap 12 of his 45 lap stint was just 0.161s faster than Stoner's best over the two days. Pedrosa was over half a second faster than third placed Ben Spies (Yamaha 1,000cc).
The RC213V has seen improvements to several areas of performance since the last test, at Brno, in August. Stoner is impressed with the overall development made particularly to the front end which allows for a better corner entry and better feed-back.
"Everything has gone pretty well to be honest, on the first day we just needed to compare the bike to the one we tested earlier in the year," Stoner explained.
"There have been a few small improvements especially in terms of the bike working with the new 2012 tyres. The front tyre gives us quite a lot of chatter so this is something we are trying to improve and the new bike helped with that slightly but we'd still like to improve that point a little more. Something we've had since last season with the 800's is a lack of feeling and some chatter coming from the rear on the way into the corner which is something we still need to improve with the RC213V but we believe we know the direction to go in to improve this situation.
"Overall it's been a positive test and it's the end of a long season! I'm looking forward to going home now and having some rest, enjoying time with family and friends and preparing for the arrival of our child in February, then we'll be back revitalized and ready for 2012".
