Casey Stoner hails new Honda gearbox

Casey Stoner hailed the impact of Honda’s new 2011 factory Honda RC212V gearbox after he finished the opening night of testing at Qatar in second place.

The Aussie was in control for long periods of the opening night of the floodlit test at the Losail International Circuit in Doha, but his best time of 1.56.414 was bettered by Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Honda once again dominated proceedings with Hiroshi Aoyama taking a surprise third place on the San Carlo Gresini Honda.

Stoner, who finished just 0.143s behind Pedrosa, made his first comments on the influence of Honda’s new gearbox in a media debrief last night.

Rumours first emerged in Sepang last month that Honda had introduced a dual clutch transmission system for this season, despite such technology being banned in the rules.

Honda though has developed a new quick shifting gearbox and 2007 world champion Stoner said: “It makes each gear selection smoother, especially when you have a big step in the gearbox.

“It doesn’t drop quite as hard or affect the bike quite as much. It is a bit smoother and when you’re changing gear on the exit of a corner on the edge, that’s where it feels makes a difference.

“Whether or not it’s faster I don’t know but it gives you confidence, there is less movement in the bike and you have less issues.”

Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, who was seventh quickest The Italian said: “The big difference you feel at this track is when you change direction with lean angle and you need to shift gear like in turn two and three and ten and eleven.

“When you need to change gear with lean angle the bike is very soft and it doesn’t disturb the bike.”

One area though where Stoner is still desperate to see HRC resolve is the persistent issue with braking stability.

He said the problem in Qatar was just as bad as it in the two previous tests in Sepang and he told MCN: “This track is so smooth you can feel it more but we’re having some chatter on the exit here.

“If we have the wrong weight on the rear with one set-up we won’t have any chatter but on another setting we’ll just open the gas and it will start skipping out. We’re trying to find out if it is tyre pressure we can fix with it or if it is set-up.”

Stoner said the problem was at its most serious in the worst possible place as he poised to enter the corner.

He added: “Basically it is the last part of the corner. Straight line braking is better after we improved the clutch in Sepang but the last ten per cent it starts skipping and follows you into the corner and that’s the part where you need the most confidence to go into the corner and we’re struggling a bit with that.

“That’s one thing that Honda really needs to improve.

“It is a huge thing but to be this competitive with the problem we have, it won’t make us any faster but it will give us a lot more confidence if we fix it.”

Stoner also told MCN he wasn’t surprised to see Ducati struggling on a track where the Bologna factory has previously excelled on.

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Stoner won for Ducati in 2007, ’08 and ’09 and was leading last year’s race by a healthy margin when he crashed out.

But best Ducati was Valentino Rossi in ninth with a best time of 1.57.038 that put him 0.767s off the pace.

Stoner, who won 23 races for Ducati, said: “This is only testing and we’ve got to wait until race day to see how it pans out. I’m not necessarily surprised. Valentino has improved a lot and he was getting faster as the night went on.

“His times aren’t too far off third and fourth position and he’s not too far away at the moment.”