Marc Marquez's teammate suffered from a sore throat with fever on the second day, but nevertheless courageously lined up the laps. The times could then of course not be impressive. Recovered quite well this Friday, he completed the Spanish trifecta with a good third place.
Dani finished fifth in the first tests in Valencia, 0.7 behind Maverick Vinales and more than half a second behind Marquez. He then preceded the other Honda of Cal Crutchlow by 0.02. In Malaysia, the situation was not fundamentally different, with fifth place for Pedrosa, 0.2 behind Vinales. This time he was ahead of Crutchlow in ninth, but it was not 100% significant because Honda was struggling in the middle of an engine comparison and the choice to make was then much more important than the lap times.
At Phillip Island, the first day went normally with the seventh time 0.7 behind his teammate Marc Marquez. But he was struck down during the night by a virus (how do you catch a virus on an almost deserted island?) and woke up Thursday morning with a high fever. Courageously, he completed 40 laps to help his team in the midst of their development period, but could not do better than an anecdotal sixteenth time.
On this third day, Dani regained color and completed 65 laps, including the third time in 1'29.033, 0.4 behind Vinales. It should be noted that among the four fastest, only Pedrosa achieved his best time at the end of the afternoon, while Vinales, Marquez and Folger had been faster in the morning, on a track reputed to be in better condition than at the end. day.
For Dani, “ Overall, I think this test was very positive, especially considering that it's not one of my favorite tracks. I rode pretty well and I think we improved day by day. Yesterday I didn't feel good, but today it was a little better and we were able to do some good work on the track.
“The team worked very well. We focused again on the electronics and tuning the bike, and the only thing we couldn't do was a long ride because we ran out of time. Michelin has also made good steps forward with tires. Overall, we can say that we are moving in the right direction, although we still have work to do. »
