Hayden eyes new engine for England

From Repsol Honda

The Repsol Honda team heads north for the British Grand Prix on June 22 after two southern European MotoGP events in Italy and Spain. Riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden are both looking forward to the British round after a profitable weekend at the Catalan Grand Prix.

Pedrosa won the race at Catalunya in storming style to close to within seven points of the World Championship lead.

Hayden had a tougher race but during post-race tests the American was able to try out Honda’s pneumatic-valve RC212V engine and came away impressed, though intermittent rain prevented the team from completing the full testing schedule. Hayden may use the engine at Donington Park, so long as HRC engineers are satisfied they obtained enough data from the tests to allow them to further fine-tune the electronics.

“I hope I’ll be able to use the pneumatic-valve engine but we’ll see what the decision is, we’ll go with what the team says," Hayden explained. "Going into a race weekend with new parts is never easy, so if we use the engine we’ll just try to learn as the weekend goes on and get it dialled in.”

Pedrosa will continue with the conventional spring-valve engine at Donington. The Spaniard suffered a heavy fall on the first day of the tests and was thus unable to fully acquaint himself with the pneumatic-valve engine.

Donington Park is one of Britain’s oldest race circuits. The first event was staged over a gravel course around the estate of the Donington Park stately home in 1931. The track was closed down during World War Two and only reopened in the late 1970s. Donington has two very contrasting sections. The first, from Redgate to Coppice, is fast and flowing. The second, from Foggy’s Esses to the final Goddard’s Hairpin (added in 1986), is tight and slow. These two sections require larger-than-usual compromises in machine set-up.

“Donington is quite a strange circuit, quite smooth but not so grippy, and it often rains there," Pedrosa said. "My favourite part of the track is the uphill section all the way to Coppice. I don’t like the last part, it’s very slow and tight.

"You need a set-up similar to Le Mans, so the bike accelerates hard and brakes well too. You also need as much grip as you can get because the surface is quite slippery. The two different parts of the circuit require different riding styles: the first requires a smooth style, the second a very aggressive style.”