Photo: MotoGP.com
Former 2007 and 2011 MotoGP champion Casey Stoner spent two days in Japan at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit testing Honda's 2013 RC213V machine and the 2014 prototype.
Despite the first day of test being completely hampered by rain and ending after only 6 laps, the weather cleared out on Wednesday and Stoner was able to put in no less than 47 laps aboard the 2013 bike during the morning and aboard the 2014 one in the afternoon.
Stoner told MotoGP.com that he was happy aboard a MotoGP bike after 9 months: "It was really nice to get that first run; it's been nine months since I've been on a bike and it's going to take me some time to get used to everything again! The bike and the track felt good and I hope that we can get some better testing in tomorrow with some dry track time and run some more laps."
Shuhei Nakamoto, HRC's Executive VP added that Honda will have Stoner testing the production racer as well in the near future, as the present Motegi tests were focused on the RC213V.
However, this does not look like bringing Casey Stoner any closer to a real MotoGP race. Stoner himself stressed out that he doesn't plan any wildcard appearances: “It felt really good to get back on the bike after nine months and I'm happy with how the test went, but it doesn't change my mind about the wildcards - this is not something I am planning to do.”
Now, there's still half a season until the Phillip Island and Valencia rounds, and it's more than once we saw things changing 180 degrees...
Stoner told MotoGP.com that he was happy aboard a MotoGP bike after 9 months: "It was really nice to get that first run; it's been nine months since I've been on a bike and it's going to take me some time to get used to everything again! The bike and the track felt good and I hope that we can get some better testing in tomorrow with some dry track time and run some more laps."
Shuhei Nakamoto, HRC's Executive VP added that Honda will have Stoner testing the production racer as well in the near future, as the present Motegi tests were focused on the RC213V.
However, this does not look like bringing Casey Stoner any closer to a real MotoGP race. Stoner himself stressed out that he doesn't plan any wildcard appearances: “It felt really good to get back on the bike after nine months and I'm happy with how the test went, but it doesn't change my mind about the wildcards - this is not something I am planning to do.”
Now, there's still half a season until the Phillip Island and Valencia rounds, and it's more than once we saw things changing 180 degrees...
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