Drive M7 Honda’s Eugene Laverty knocked a second off his best laptime during the second MotoGP test session in Qatar last night as his RC213VR-S works so much better than it did in the heat of Sepang.
The Monegasque managed to get down to a 1’56.342 on a track he hadn’t ridden on the Open class Honda until yesterday, and is only two-tenths behind his vastly more experienced team-mate Nicky Hayden.
"The bike works much better here than in Sepang, so yesterday I only had to adapt myself to the circuit without making major changes. Our work, both yesterday and today, has focused on the chassis to find the best possible balance,” said Laverty.
“We have also done some electronics testing, but we still have things to do tomorrow. I'm happy with my feeling and also because today we could go faster than yesterday and set some positive lap times.
“I’m happy with this bike, it is stable and the tyre gives me confidence and allows me to brake hard. I hope tomorrow we can still improve a little more to finish the test on a high.”
Laverty and Hayden may be a little concerned that Karel Abraham, who is on the same bike, was appreciably faster yesterday, putting in a 1’55.765 as his quickest.
