Carlos Checa And The LCR Team Proceed With The RC212V Development At Sepang - November 16th 2006

The second day of the planned three-day MotoGP test session at Sepang circuit started as soon as the damp track had been dried off by the burning sun. With ambient temperatures of 34 degrees combined with high humidity and the track surface eventually reaching 45 degrees the MotoGP riders returned to testing the new 800cc bikes including Carlos Checa on the new RC212V which will be involved in the 18-round world championship of 2007.

Checa only managed five full laps of the Sepang circuit yesterday but made up as much time as possible with running a marathon 80-lap stint today.

The LCR team worked with various changes to the steering head angle to give Carlos a better feeling from the front tyre when he tipped the RCV into the corners. He also feels a need to improve the seating position by moving the seat back and possibly changes to the fuel tank for him to be more comfortable on the machine.

Carlos Checa: "Yesterday was my first time on the bike but in five laps I learned nothing. Today we worked on front end to try and find a better feeling going into the corners. We tried different off-sets because the front felt a little heavy. With those changes we needed to test tyres to check the character of this bike using these tyres. In the passed two years I have used both Bridgestone and Dunlop tyres so I have to learn all about the new generation of Michelin tyres. We have to clarify the good and not so good features of the machine for the engineers to work the best way before we test here again in January."