Conditions hinder Honda test.

The second day of the HRC winter test at Phillip Island was hampered by rain and high winds as riders continued to get used to their new mounts for the 2002 campaign.

The worst of the conditions prevailed in the morning, before improving by lunchtime. As the track surface dried, the five riders present were, high winds apart, given a freer run in the afternoon.

Team riders Valentino Rossi and Tohru Ukawa completed almost 100 laps of the 4.448km circuit aboard their RC211V five-cylinder 990cc Honda four-strokes. Rossi was again fastest, slightly faster than yesterday, at 1min 32.20secs, while Ukawa had the misfortune to crash in the windy conditions.

"Today I worked a lot on testing new tyres and suspension parts," Rossi reported, "I am beginning to understand this bike and my team start to understand how to set-up the bike to solve potential problems. We still need to work to achieve the best from this machine but I'm quite satisfied. The bike is very, very fast."

Ukawa escaped unscathed from his accident, but the RC211V was damaged, restricting the number of laps he could put in. Despite the setback, however, Ukawa was close to his time of Wednesday.

"This morning, I went onto the grass and crashed - I was lucky, but the bike was slightly damaged," the sheepish Japanese admitted, "I got caught by the strong wind at the end of the pit straight and lost the ideal line and went onto the grass. In the afternoon, I got in some good times and I'm sure I'll be even faster tomorrow."

Honda Gresini rider, Daijiro Katoh, was another faller. The diminutive 250cc world champion slid off his NSR500 braking for the hairpin. Katoh also escaped injury in the slow speed crash, and went on to better his time of yesterday by three-tenths of a second, at 1min 33.30secs.

"Today I worked on suspension settings and tyres," Katoh revealed, "In the morning, I had a low speed crash at the hairpin. I lost grip and the bike slid away from me, without damage to myself or the bike. In general, I'm satisfied with what we did today."

Kanemoto Honda had team rider Jurgen van der Goorbergh testing its Bridgestone-shod NSR500 in preparation for the tyre manufacturer's entry into the senior class of GP racing. HRC test rider Shinichi Itoh, himself a former GP rider, also lent his considerable experience to the team's tyre testing efforts, working together with van der Goorbergh and team owner/manager Erv
Kanemoto. Both riders circulated faster than on the opening day of the test.

"I'm good with the bike but I need more testing to fully understand the NSR500," van der Goorbvergh admitted, "Today, we tested a lot of tyres and I worked on suspension. Everything is going well, but I don't want to break any records, just learn how to ride this bike."

Leading performances (20 December):

Valentino Rossi Honda RC211V 1min 32.20secs 61 lapsTohru Ukawa Honda RC211V 1min 33.10secs 48 lapsDaijiro Katoh Honda NSR500 1min 33.30secs 46 lapsShinichi Itoh Honda NSR500 1min 33.92secs 58 lapsJurgen vd Goorbergh Honda NSR500 1min 34.24secs 61 laps