While the majority of teams and riders of the MotoGP Championship are heading to Jerez this week for the first IRTA test, the teams of Honda have elected to skip the Spanish gathering and are currently setting up at the Sepang circuit for their own sessions.
World Champion Valentino Rossi (who celebrates his 24th birthday this week) his team-mate and MotoGP newcomer Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda), Max Biaggi and Tohru Ukawa, (Camel Pramac Pons) Daijiro Kato and Sete Gibernau (Telefónica Movistar Honda), and Makoto Tamada (Pramac Honda) are ready to return to the spectacular Malaysian track, where they clocked some miles last month with their RC211V four-strokes. During that time the riders of the Japanese brand shared the facility with the new Ducati team. The subsequent war with laptimes and the ´competitive´ nature of the sessions provided the first small taste of what lies in store for a spectacular 2003 Championship.
The unofficial times posted by Rossi (with 2´02.6), Biaggi, Ukawa, Kato and Gibernau were all under the crono that gained pole position at the GP held last October and recorded by Alex Barros.
Starting tomorrow it is likely that all the the riders will be guiding refined versions of their 2003 machinery around the track; expect the times to be even more spectacular.
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