Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa says the Japanese manufacturer is in a ‘better shape’ than it was at this stage last year following a strong final test for the Spanish rider.
HRC came into the first round of the 2016 championship with many foreshadowing a tough season ahead, after their winter was plagued with engine issues.
Whilst the pre-season this year has seen troubles arise with their new motor, Honda has made steady progress in this area over the course of the four tests and Pedrosa was able to maximise on this with a strong final night at Losail.
The Spaniard completed 50 laps on Sunday, bringing his tally for the weekend up to 136, and though he did not put in a full race run he did manage to string together a promising set of mid-1m55s laps during the session.
“I think today was a positive day in general,” he said. “We had a few things to sort out from yesterday, and step-by-step we improved our feeling, the lap time and our rhythm in general.”
Pedrosa popped in a late effort of 1m54.469s to jump up to third on the time sheets, this lap seeing him end the test as top Honda rider and just over a tenth off of the pace set by Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales.
The three-times world champion worked on ‘general’ improvements to his RC213V across Sunday, and while he admits that there is still some way to go before the bike is perfect he is at least gaining in confidence on it.
“The improvement was general and even if we still have work to do, we gained confidence and this was a positive end to the pre-season,” he continued.
“This track is not one of my favourites, but the team did a great job and things kept improving. We’re in a better shape than last year and we’ll try to add this confidence to the motivation for the GP and to do our best at the first race.”
Pedrosa’s team-mte Marc Marquez endured a tough final night, the reigning premier class champion hitting the deck three times across the session.
However, he attributes the latter two to simply exploring the limits on a long run, and despite his final result of 10th he is happy nonetheless with his weekend’s work as he feels only Vinales is quicker than him.
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