Source: MotoGP.

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa had their first taste of next year’s Honda MotoGP prototype on Wednesday at Brno.

They spent the majority of the morning aboard the current RC213V and then just before lunch Marquez exited on the 2015 model. Pedrosa soon followed and both riders returned to the Brno pit box to give their invaluable feedback to their team and the additional HRC engineers, who have joined for this test.

Both reported with some positive aspects on the new machine and also commented about areas that need improvement. This feedback will be instrumental in the next stage of development for this machine.

“The second day went fairly well, although the grip level was still not as high as we would have liked in order to correctly carry out the testing that we had planned,” Marquez said. “When we wanted to go a little faster to get closer to the limit and evaluate things, it was very risky.

“Giving it a try this morning I had another crash at turn five, once again, I lost grip with the front end. During the day we were able to try out the new bike and the first impressions are fairly good.

“Obviously there are positive things and not-so-positive things, but the first impression is satisfactory. We put in similar times with the new bike to what we did with the current model, so we are happy.”

In total Marquez completed 53 laps on the current machine – suffering a small crash again in turn five – and 20 laps on the 2015 prototype, highlighting corner speed improvements.

Pedrosa did 41 laps on his 2014 bike, concentrating on mapping settings, and 16 laps on the new prototype. The three-day test will conclude on Thursday.

Meanwhile, since 1995 Repsol has been the title sponsor of the factory Honda MotoGP team and after 20 years of sporting success and technological development, a new three-year agreement will see Honda and Repsol continue their special partnership through to the end of 2017.