Drive M7 Honda’s Eugene Laverty has had his first taste of the 2015 Open RC213V-RS he will campaign for the rest of the 2015 MotoGP season and he says it is everything he had hoped for in the off season.
The Irishman only got to ride the 2014 RCV1000R at Valencia and had to spent the intervening two months wondering what the new bike was like while rival Jack Miller spent three days at Sepang getting in some laps.
“The bike is what I hoped it would be. I wasn’t sure for two months but I am pleased. The engine is manageable, maybe with the chassis you have to push, it’s a bike build for speed, not comfort so I have really got to be aggressive and making the tyres work,” said Laverty, speaking at Sepang.
“I didn’t do many laps on the old bike so we can’t do a back-to-back comparison and this is a completely different circuit but perhaps my style of riding as well, I like to have some punch out of a corner so that’s what we have been working on as well.
“It was good to compare with the Yamahas, Suzukis and official Hondas to get an idea of where we are at. It is definitely a good step up from where we were at Valencia.
“Today we struggled with feel from the front. We still have to work on lean angle, body position and get more off the side of the bike, I’m not restricted by the fuel tank. There is much more room to move about.
“I like the front tyre, I like being able to push it. For me, it is how small the bike is and how much room there is to move. I’m bigger than the bike whereas I am used to the bike being bigger than me. You have to watch Marquez and the way he jumps around the bike. You get used to riding a bike a certain way, leaning off a certain amount, so it’s a bit-by-bit adjustment.”
