Repsol Honda continue to improve in Austin

Repsol Honda riders, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez, have had enjoyed strong day at the Circuit of The Americas track in Austin.

The two Spanish riders were blessed with fantastic weather, 10ºC warmer than yesterday, and slowly improving track conditions. Once again, Marc topped the time sheets improving on yesterday's time by eight tenths of a second with a lap time of 2'03.853 taken on lap 39 of 55. He spent the day testing some electronic settings and generally building his confidence with his RC213V machine. Dani remained second fastest, just one tenth off his teammate. He worked on gearing and with rear suspension settings and set his fastest lap of 2'03.976 on lap 57 of 58, improving on his time of yesterday by over a second (2'05.047).

Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team, 1st, 2'03.853
"Although it looked like the track had a little less grip, it wasn't long before I could ride at the same level as yesterday. I gradually improved with every stint. Having a good pace early was important, because it allowed me to start to try things out. For the rest of the day we kept dropping our times and keeping to our strategy: testing things and confirming the results to eliminate any doubt. We did a great job today and the team is really helping me a lot. I am learning so much during these days - most of all with the electronics. With this being a new track, we have no base to go on and we have to work a little harder on finding one"

Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team, 2nd, 2'03.976
"Today we continued to put in laps and I was also able to improve my cornering on some turns; I found some details that allowed me to run a better line on them. We had good conditions and were able to try some different gearing, plus a couple of shock absorbers that allowed us to gain a little more grip. We made the most of the second part of the day, in the afternoon, as the track was much better than in the morning. We are happy with how the second day went and hope to continue with the good work tomorrow"

Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing, 3rd, 2'04.664
“I feel better today, especially in the last run before the lunch break, we changed the set up of the bike and we improved some tenths so we are closer to the fastest riders, but not as much as we would like. We were too soft in the suspension to start with, we made it harder and in this track it works.
These two days that we are here I think is enough to get a good idea of set up and riding style. The fans will like MotoGP here, it is going to be a great show.
We have been trying different set ups of the bike, no new parts, just playing with the set up, changing the suspension and forks and in the last run I improved half a second with set up changes.
We still don't have enough grip on the rear so we can’t lean over with confidence which is why we are further behind than in Sepang.
I am adapting my riding style every lap a little for the track. In the main straight we are at 340kmh/h which is an amazing speed; when you have to brake and put your helmet up the wind is very strong so it’s difficult to be stable.”

Stefan Bradl LCR Honda MotoGP Team, 4th, 2’04.640
“This morning we struggled a bit in the breaking areas which is unusual for my riding style and my bike set-up. After some adjustments we have found an improvement and I was able to go faster and faster. In my flying laps on new soft tyres I was not enough precise because we had low grip. However I was very consistent throughout the day and we have found two base set-ups to develop”.

Valentino Rossi Yamaha Factory Racing, 5th, 2'05.518
“The feeling with the track improved today, we started to work on the bike to improve the difficult points, especially in the three very hard braking areas where it is important to have good stability. It’s also very important to have grip on the edge through the hairpin to have speed along the straight.
It looks like you can make a big difference in the slow parts here. The chicane part in turn two is very technical and difficult as it is blind; you have to go a bit with memory.
Step by step we improved a lot from yesterday but have some disadvantage compared to the other guys so we need to put all the sections together. The target was to come here and try to understand the track and try to be ready for the race.
Our competitors are able to accelerate faster than us from the hairpin and they have a bit more grip on the edge compared to us so these are the areas where we have to work, in the flowing parts we are not so bad.
The track is good, a very classical ‘Tilke’ track, I like the fast parts, turn two and turn ten especially. There is lots of hard braking and it is very wide so good for overtaking. The long right before the last two lefts is also good. Its fun and not too hot like it is in Sepang so it's a good place to make a motorcycle race.”