No pneumatic valve motor for Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa

MotoGP factory Honda duo Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa will not race the new RC212V pneumatic valve engine in this weekend’s Catalunya GP.

After lengthy discussions with Honda engineers and team management, it has been decided that Hayden and Pedrosa will assess the new motor at a two-day test session after Sunday’s Catalunya race.

Expectations that the Repsol Honda pair would use the new motor in Barcelona this weekend were raised after veteran test rider Tadayuki Okada completed the first race for the pneumatic valve engine in Mugello earlier this month.

Okada finished 14th but Honda still weren’t willing to let Hayden or Pedrosa risk it, particularly for Pedrosa, who is racing in front of his home fans this weekend looking to close a 12-point deficit on series leader Valentino Rossi.

Hayden and Pedrosa haven’t used the new motor since winter testing, but if tests are successful on Monday and Tuesday, they could make their race debut on it at the British GP on June 22.

For the time being, both will continue to use the conventional spring valve V4 800cc engine.

Kazuhiko Yamano, Repsol Honda team manager, said: “We have decided not to use the pneumatic-valve-spring engine for the Catalan Grand Prix.

“If we were to use the engine this weekend, we would have to do comparison tests between the pneumatic-valve-spring engine and the standard engine, as well as finding the best machine set-up and choosing the correct tyres for the race.

“Also, Dani and Nicky have to achieve fast lap times to obtain the best possible grid position, so they need to concentrate on this job. It would be better to test the pneumatic-valve-spring engine during the post-race tests on Monday and Tuesday.

“After that, we will decide when to use the new engine. We will fix the earliest possible date.”

Pedrosa goes into his home race looking for a second triumph on home soil in 2008 after his victory in Jerez earlier this season. He must stop an in-form Rossi though, who has taken his Bridgestone-shod factory Yamaha to three successive wins.