Simoncelli delight at Sepang showing
Added on Friday, February 4th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Simoncelli delight at Sepang showing
Marco Simoncelli declared himself “100% happy” with this week’s MotoGP test in Sepang, which saw him finish top of the overall time charts.
The Gresini Honda rider posted the fastest time of day three and the fastest overall time with a lap of 2:00.757, 0.013 seconds faster than Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.
Despite Simoncelli riding a factory-spec Honda RC212V, the performance of both him and teammate Hiroshi Aoyama over the course of the three days caused a stir in the MotoGP paddock – and the Italian believes that more is to come from the Gresini team.
“I am really happy,” he claimed. “In the test at Valencia we realised that the new bike had potential and I already had a good feeling with it. Taking into account that this is not one of my favourite circuits we have still managed to build on our consistency from yesterday and this morning I was able to set an awesome lap.
“For the rest of the day we focused on a race simulation, setting a consistent pace and by the end of it I wasn’t on the limit like I was in the race here.
“Overall I am 100% happy. The team has worked brilliantly, the changes have integrated well and everything has gone perfectly. We have all improved, starting with myself, the guys and the bike, and I’m sure this year I’ll ‘be there’ too.
“Obviously this is only the first test so we have to keep our feet on the ground and just continue like this.”
