However, Marco Melandri made the most of the opportunity to ride the RC211V in the wet and the Italian was satisfied with the result.
The Telefónica MoviStar Honda rider completed 22 laps of the Spanish circuit with a best time of 1’54”100, as he aims to gather as much data as possible ahead of the start of the season in two weeks’ time. The track dried in the afternoon although there were still some damp patches, with Melandri adding a further 27 laps to take his total to 49 and improve his time to 1’42”573.
Sete Gibernau, who has proven to be a wet specialist in recent seasons, decided to wait and see if the weather improved before taking to the track in the afternoon. Even though the conditions were not as good as yesterday, Gibernau rode for 28 laps as he continued to work on the chassis and new fork he tried yesterday and set a fastest lap of 1’42”278.
Weather permitting, the team are planning to do a race simulation in tomorrow’s final day of tests of the 2005 preseason.
SETE GIBERNAU (1’42”278, 28 laps):
“I didn’t ride for long today but at least we were able to make the most of the final hour on track and move on from the work we did yesterday. We’ve basically done tests with the chassis, geometry, height and weight distribution. The track wasn’t perfect but I had the occasional interesting lap. I didn’t ride in the wet this morning because I still don’t think it’s the right time. Once I have the bike right in the dry I know what steps we have to take to go well in the wet, but for now we need to refine the base setting before we can make those comparisons.”
MARCO MELANDRI(1’42”573, 49 laps):
“Yesterday we already planned to test in the wet because I haven’t had chance to do it all preseason and it’s important to have references with the new bike. We took things calmly and the truth is that it went much better than I expected. I think the Honda is easier to ride in the wet – at least in my case I felt a lot more confident with the front than I was with the Yamaha. I’m happy to have been able to try it out but I hope the weather improves tomorrow because we want to complete a race simulation, as we have done at every test this preseason.”
LAP TIMES
1. Shinya Nakano (Jap/Kawasaki) 1’42”112
2. Nicky Hayden (USA/Honda) 1’42”139
3. Sete Gibernau (Esp/Honda) 1’42”278
4. John Hopkins (USA/Suzuki) 1’42”359
5. Marco Melandri (Ita/Honda) 1’42573