The Repsol Honda team began their preparations for the 2007 MotoGP World Championship here at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo Valencia, today, just three-days after the curtain came down on the 2006 series. Newly crowned World Champion Nicky Hayden and team-mate Dani Pedrosa took their RC212V four-cylinder 800cc Hondas out on track for the first session of their extensive winter test programme. American Hayden was riding the RC212V for the very first time and the World Champion put in 87-laps of the tight and demanding 4.005 km Spanish track recording a best lap time of 1m 33.66s just six-tenths of a second slower than his fastest time aboard the 990cc RC211V machine he raced to a title clinching third place in the GP of Valencia, held at the same circuit last Sunday. Hayden had to adjust his riding style slightly to get the best out of the machine finding the RC212V more compact than its title-winning predecessor. The new bike was easier to ride and gave him more traction. Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, who had previously tested the 800cc machine at Motegi, Japan, was just one-tenth of a second outside his best time he set in the grand prix. The former 125cc and 250cc World Champion quickly settled on the 800cc machine a more compact version of its forerunner and reeled off a series of fast laps. Pedrosa spent the day on defining the best direction for a solid base set up as he adjusted to the compact machine and the lighter feeling improving little by little as he reeled off 73 laps around the tortuously twisty circuit. The Gresini Honda squad stayed on at Valencia for a one-day test session with, new for the 2007 season, tyre supplier Bridgestone. Team riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elias ran virtual back-to-back test measuring their new rubber against that of their previous supplier. Both men ended their assimilation test session in a very positive frame of mind. The two riders lapped faster today than they had in Sundays race the improvement due, in part to the lower track temperatures. Italian Melandri, a three-time MotoGP race victor in 2006, put in 67-laps of the 4.005 km circuit on his five-cylinder 990cc RV211V and despite a slow start, due to a bout of food poisoning, adjusted to the Bridgestone tyres as the day went on surprising himself with his consistently fast lap times. Team-mate Elias was even faster. The young Spaniard quickly established a good rhythm putting in a string of laps in the low 1m 33s bracket. Elias had found a good base setting for his RC211V without too many changes and was impressed with tyre performance and how quickly he settled. He now moves onto 800cc racing with increased confidence. Honda rider quotes and lap times: Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 33.66s 87 laps. “I enjoyed riding the new bike today and I’m quite excited because it’s got some pretty trick parts and it looks really cool. I got down into the 1m 33s lap-times pretty easily this morning which is a good sign. The new bike feels like it’s got a lot more traction especially under acceleration. The power delivery feels a lot smoother, and when you first open the throttle you don’t need to get the bike picked up as much as you did with the 990. It feels a lot lighter but actually the weight is not much different. The bike definitely feels quite small and has a different feeling that I’ll have to get used to. We’re already going around the corners faster than the 990cc bike and it’s going to require a different style of riding and be a different breed of bike. It does have high corner entry and corner speed and I’ll have to adapt a few things with my style. Sunday almost feels old now and I know we’ve made Valentino mad by taking his title, so I’m looking forward to taking him on next season. I want to come back next year and win again on this bike. To win one title is great but to take two of them takes you into another elite group so I’m still hungry.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 33.21s 73 laps. “The feeling from the bike here, at a European circuit, is more or less the same as in the first test in Japan. We have ridden for many more hours today, so that’s been good and I’ve been improving bit by bit. We’ve made general tests to start finding the best set-up and to get closer to the performance during the Grand Prix. There are some differences compared to the 900cc machine. This bike is obviously totally different to the previous one, but in the end it’s also a motorbike, so the way to work with it is the same. I still have to find the right way to ride it because I’m still used to the other bike. However, it will soon come naturally as we continue lapping. As regards to the tyres, we’ve been using the same ones we used during the Grand Prix weekend.” Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 32.90s 67 laps. “It was a very interesting day and I’m satisfied with the choice of tyres the team has made. I only struggled a little at the beginning because I was feeling ill with food poisoning. Anyway, I didn’t want to miss this test. The behaviour of the bike was so different on the Bridgestone’s but the feeling with the bike was good. I could ride as smoothly as I like to particularly in the middle of the corner. Now we will have to see how the tyres behave on the 800cc but we have made a good start. I established good cooperation with the Japanese Bridgestone technicians so I am eager to start work on preparing for the new championship.” Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 1m 32.73 87 laps. “I am very satisfied with the first day of testing with the Bridgestone tyres. It’s too early to make comparisons with the tyres we used all through this season. However, today I could put in many laps with a good rhythm in low 1m 33s times and my fastest lap was very good. Now I am looking forward to testing the new RC212V 800cc at Sepang in mid-November.”