Honda hit the track again.

Following the Honda tests at Jerez last week, the Honda RC211V will be back out on the track at the Circuit of Catalunya, taking part in a two day test on Thursday and Friday. The four-stroke machine is being prepared for next years MotoGP World Championship and will be put to the test by Tohru Ukawa and Shinichi Itoh. Also at Catalunya will be 250cc World Champion Daijiro Katoh who will be getting to grips with his new NSR500, and Alzamora and Rolfo will be on their 250cc machines.

The Repsol YPF Honda Team were happy with the results they obtained from the testing at Jerez and Team Manager Noriaki Nakata was very positive about the test. "The tests in Jerez were very important for us thanks to the fantastic weather over the three days," said Nakata. "Our goal for the test was not to find the best set up for this track but to find a basic, fundamental set up for the RC211V. We have achieved our goal."

Team Director, Koji Nakajima was in agreement with this statement. "As the RCV is a totally new machine what is important now is not the lap time but to uncover any problems machine may have and in this test we identified them all." Said Nakajima. "We had a lot of things to test and we have made all the planned progress."

Katoh made a good impression with Honda in the last test and there are expectations for him to do well in the coming season. "Daijiro has made a brilliant first step with the NSR500," said the head of Honda's racing division. "I expected him to do so and I'm very much looking forward to watching his progress from now on."

After the tests on Thursday and Friday, the Honda outfit will be moving around the globe to Phillip Island, Australia for another appearance of the RC211V. This will be in a few weeks time in a three day test, on the 19th, 20th and 21st of December.