Day 3 lunchtime at The Circuit of The Americas The final day of testing commenced this morning in Austin, with both Repsol Honda riders, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez on track. Marc was fastest at the lunch break after 26 laps with a 2’03.357 (half a second faster than yesterday), and Dani 2nd with 2’03.898 (a tenth faster than yesterday) completing 14 laps. Marc Marquez 1st 2’03.357 “This morning has been quite good, from the beginning the grip on the track wasn’t too bad. We found our rhythm pretty qucikly and we began to try a few things that we first tired yesterday and saw that they could be better and we confirmed these feelings. So at the moment everything is going well and now we will plan our final programme for the afternoon session” Dani Pedrosa 2nd 2’03.898 “We didn’t do anything too special this morning, just confirmed some settings with the rear shock from yesterday and some other setup items. Now we have the final session this afternoon to finish our programme before we leave” Testing Results 1 Marc Marquez 2’03.357 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 2 Dani Pedrosa 2’03.898 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 3 Stefan Bradl 2’04.225 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP More, from another press release issued by Repsol Honda: Repsol Honda Team complete successful test at The Circuit of The Americas The private MotoGP test held in Austin has come to a conclusion for Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. It has been a valuable test for the two Spanish riders who shaved over eight seconds off their times from the first outing here on Tuesday. Rookie Marc Marquez finished on top with a fastest time of 2’03.281 recorded today on lap 38 of 57. Marc has used this test to further familiarise himself with the MotoGP machine and has spent time working with the electronics and gearing on his Honda RC213V. His teammate Dani Pedrosa finished 2nd fastest with today’s time of 2’03.898 taken on lap 4 of 25. After testing some settings in the morning, Dani decided not to do so many laps in the afternoon due to a slight neck strain from the morning. He will now rest ahead of next week’s final pre-season test in Jerez on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of March, where he will look to confirm the setup changes and new rear shock that he tested in Austin. The first race of 2013 is now less than a month away with the Grand Prix of Qatar taking place on 7th April. Photos courtesy of Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool Marc Marquez 1st 2’03.281 “This final day has been good for me. From the beginning I had the same feeling as yesterday and especially this morning we started to try some technical settings for the first time and we found some big improvements. After lunch we were considering a race simulation but in the end we spent the time working with the electronics. It’s been important to come and test here as we will be here for the second race. It’s quite a physical track – especially the first sector – but in the end, we now know the track a little and we have a good base for when we come here for the GP” Dani Pedrosa 2nd 2’03.898 “After the first exit this morning I had a pain in my neck, I’m not sure what caused it but it affected my riding so I decided not to do so many laps today. Everything has gone well though in general, we had three positive days and I’m happy we came here, because we were able to put in many laps of this circuit which is very tricky and difficult. There are some heavy braking points and some blind corners, so it was important to test here to find the references. We weren’t able to try much in terms of settings, because we didn’t know the track and the surface wasn’t 100% with so few riders here, but we’ve been improving. We only tried the soft compound tyre, but in general the feeling is positive. I’d like to thank Honda for making the effort to come here, it has been valuable and I am very grateful!” Testing Results 1 Marc Marquez 2’03.281 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 2 Dani Pedrosa 2’03.898 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 3 Stefan Bradl 2’04.225 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: BRADL CONTINUES TO IMPROVE AT AUSTIN FINAL DAY OF TESTING Austin, 14 March: with Yamaha riders not contesting the final day of testing, LCR Honda racer Stefan Bradl took the “COTA” this morning alongside HRC colleagues Pedrosa and Marquez concluding the private test with a 2’04.225. The German spent the day testing Bridgestone tyres and breaking system regulations completing 43 laps, but he could not go for a long run as planned because of aching left hand problem. Bradl and his squad will reunite at Jerez (Spain) for the fourth and final Official MotoGP Test (23/24/25 March) before the season launches in Qatar on 7th April. Bradl: “Overnight my left hand started to ache and this morning it was oddly swollen. For this reason I was not able to be very aggressive on the bike (especially on hard breakings and left corners) and we decided to cancel the afternoon race simulation. However we improved some areas like the breaking stability and we tried different hard tyres both rear and front gathering more data for the race weekend. Overall it was a useful test for us because we had the first approach with this new track and we gained more track time before the start of the season”.