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Repsol Honda riders happy with direction of machine development

Marquez and Pedrosa test 2014 and 2015 prototype back to back during Brno test

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team tests the 2015 bike

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team tests the 2015 bike

Repsol Media

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team tests the 2015 bike
Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team tests the 2015 bike
Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Race winner Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Podium: second place Dani Pedrosa
Race winner Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

Whilst the Repsol Honda team enter the traditional summer break in the MotoGP World Championship with Marc Marquez leading by some 77 points, the Japanese manufacturer will be even happier after wrapping up a successful three day private test at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic with both Marc Marquez and teammate Dani Pedrosa testing their current 2014 machines alongside the first version of the 2015 RCV prototype.

Now we can take a break, which we all certainly deserve!

Marc Marquez

With Honda’s already rapid straight-line pace with it’s current RCV213V, the team was targeting improvements in the areas of electronics and braking with a number of new parts being tested throughout the three days. With mixed weather conditions however, progress was slow during the first day with better progress made on Wednesday and the best conditions prevailing today.

The conditions affected Marquez more with the reigning World Champion crashing a number of times on the first two days but he luckily walked away unhurt from each incident. “When we wanted to go a little faster to get closer to the limit and evaluate things, it was very risky,” said Marquez who added, “Giving it a try this morning I had another crash at Turn 5; once again, I lost grip with the front end. Meanwhile, Pedrosa added, “The weather was more stable and allowed us to try a lot of things. The track still didn't have too much grip, but we were able to put more kilometers under our belts and get a first impression of the new bike.

Further testing will be needed

When testing the new prototype, both riders were pleased with the direction of development. Honda didn’t release any times from the test both riders were confident with the machine’s pace. Speaking about the new machine Marquez said, “We put in similar times with the new bike to what we did with the current model, so we are happy,” while Pedrosa added, “We were also able to test the new bike and put in our first kilometers with it, but we will have to keep testing it further down the line in order to continue to with development.”

Marquez happy

Marquez was also happy with the new items to be tested for this year’s machine including parts to improve his braking and also new electronic settings to improve corner speed, two areas where rivals Yamaha has always been strong. Honda also brought us some new parts for our current RC213V machine and we were able to test with the electronics and the brakes, plus some different setups to what we have been using up to now. We are happy with how it went, because we've put in a lot of laps and gathered a lot of data. Now we can take a break, which we all certainly deserve!”

Pedrosa was also happy with his three days before the break saying, “We were able to try many things, in particular some small adjustments to the bike. Some changes have been made thinking more about the future, but others can be used more immediately at the next few races. Overall I am happy with the three days, because we have been able to take some steps forward with the electronics; we'll see if that gives us any improvement on the bike.”

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