By David Miller
Image by Repsol Media
Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner is impressed with his first test of the 2012 1000cc RC212V which took place today at Jerez, saying it is very stable on the brakes and the power delivery is equally smooth but the overall feel in terms of setup is similar to the current 800.
Stoner is the sole HRC man at the test as Dani Pedrosa has a broken collarbone and Andrea Dovizioso wasn't invited and the Aussie says the Spaniard is important to the development of the bike.
"Everything has gone very well, very positive. It's just nice to ride the 1000cc again, to feel the engine and the power. I had a lot of fun, I enjoyed the first day because everything we've tried seems to be working, so no complaints. The biggest disappointment is that Dani is not going be here to test as he is important to the development of this bike," said Stoner.
"I hope that soon HRC can get his input as well because we need as much data as possible, in order to be ready for next season. We didn't focus on anything special today, just tried to understand what the bike is doing, how it reacts on the brakes and things like that, also considering some the issues we have with the 800cc right now.
"The braking point seems to be stronger, stability in the front going into the corner seems to be very good, and of course we want to understand how the power delivery is, and it is very smooth so no problem. In general, we haven't changed too much from the set up we have on the 800cc right now and the feeling is very similar, so it's pretty good."