Aoyama quickest but Simoncelli unconcerned in rookies test
Added on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Aoyama quickest but Simoncelli unconcerned in rookies test
Hiroshi Aoyama was the quickest in Sepang today as he and Marco Simoncelli concluded their rookies test in Malaysia.
In scorching hot temperatures, the 250cc champion managed to lower the time of his best lap yesterday by almost one second to 2:02.3, nine tenths of a second quicker than the time set by Simoncelli, who himself shaved half a second from his best lap on day two.
The times are still some way off the pace that the pair will need to match in 2010, with the fastest dry free practice time during the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix standing at 2min 1.427sec.
The slower time didn’t seem to concern Simoncelli however, who insisted that lap times were a secondary consideration during this three day test.
“I have finished and I am finished! I’ve ridden around 900 kilometres over the past three days, which was a nice early Christmas present! I’m happy,” he enthused. “I had hoped to go a little faster but the lap times were not our principal target here and I am extremely satisfied with what we have achieved.
“We worked hard from this morning on gathering data that is going to be very useful to us when the ‘serious’ testing begins back here at Sepang at the start of February. Fortunately today the rain held off and we were able to do a race simulation. I did 21 laps at a consistent pace in the 2’04s – even over the last few laps when the tyres were almost completely spent. Before the race simulation I did a 2’03.20 but I felt like I could have gone a good bit faster if the track was in better shape.
“Now we head home for a well-deserved Christmas holiday to gather our thoughts after this latest outing on the Honda RC212V. See you in 2010 at Sepang!”
