Catalunya MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa to try new Honda chassis

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa will evaluate a new Honda RC212V chassis during tomorrow’s opening practice session for the Catalunya MotoGP race.

Honda engineers have decided not to wait to rollout the new frame for Monday’s post race test session and Pedrosa and Repsol team-mate Andrea Dovizioso will run the new chassis tomorrow afternoon.

The chassis is the first major modification to emerge out of Japan in 2009, with Pedrosa and Dovizioso both heavily critical of a lack of development from Honda so far. Designed to improve front-end stability under braking, Pedrosa said: “We will try the modified chassis tomorrow. When I brake the bike moves a lot on the rear and in the corner it’s very unstable because the engine is too aggressive and the bike is moving. We have a lot of work to do.”

Italian Dovizioso, who has come tantalisingly close to the podium in the last two races in Le Mans and Mugello, said he hoped the revised chassis would be big improvement on making the RC212V more stable entering corners.

The former world 125GP champion told MCN: “We have a problem on the brakes and we have a problem to turn in the corner. This bike has a lot of power and sure in some points it has a lot of potential. But in many points it has some problems. Honda knows this and they try to fix. It is so difficult to use all the potential of this bike.”