Team Drive M7 Aspar's Hayden & Aoyama End MotoGP Sepang Test 2 Day 3 with Improved Performance & Consistency

28/02/14. MOTOGP TEST SEPANG

DRIVE M7 ASPAR RIDERS SIGN OFF FROM SCORCHING SEPANG

Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama post faster lap times on final day of Malaysian test, improving both performance and consistency

The last of three days of testing at Sepang took place today, bringing an end to the Malaysian preseason leg. Only three more days of tests now remain before the season starts, with the factory Honda, Yamaha and Ducati riders heading to Australia next week and the remainder scheduled to ride in Qatar. Today was the hottest of the six days at Sepang, with the thermometers registering an incredible 64 degrees. It was a gruelling day for the riders, many of whom had full race runs to complete, and probably explains why the pace wasn't quite as quick as yesterday, Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa topping the timesheet with an identical best lap of 1.59.999.

DRIVE M7 Aspar riders Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama both picked up their pace on the final day, the Japanese rider clocking his best time of the entire six days here (2.02.070), although the American was unable to match his fastest effort from the first session, when the conditions were more favourable. Despite the tortuous heat both riders managed to improve the consistency of their lap times and are looking forward to making more progress in the next test. 

15th Nicky Hayden 2.01.924 (59 laps): “We have worked really hard over the last three days here and we have gathered a lot of information that has given us a better understanding of the bike, although we still haven't made the major step we are looking for.  We still don't know why we're struggling so much to get the bike stopped into the corners so we need to work more with the electronics. It has been a strange day and we lost some time making alterations to the set-up to adapt to the heat. We know our potential is much higher than we have been able to show here so we can be optimistic and go to Qatar next week ready to put some more hard work in. It will be interesting to see how the bike performs at a different track but we have a lot to do there to make sure we are ready for the first race." 

17th Hiroshi Aoyama 2.02.070 (61 laps): “We had a little setback today and had to put everything on hold at around midday but in the end we fixed it and got back out on track. Our objective today was to continue working on the set-up and we managed to improve the feeling by the end of the day. As well as improving the feeling we also improved the lap times but we still have plenty to test next week in Qatar. We need to have a meeting and work out how we can improve the suspension but in general the feeling is that the bike is good and has plenty of room for improvement - it just needs more laps."