It was a splendid second day of Pirelli Testing in Kyalami, South Africa. Typical of the southern summer, air temperatures were roughly 30°C which allowed the pavement to reach 60°C in the early afternoon.
Biaggi, Nakano, and their RSV4s underwent a lot of developmental work as they continue their search for the best possible balance by testing out the various tyre surfaces supplied by Pirelli, while making sure to not neglect the electronics and engine.
Max Biaggi totaled 60 laps with a best time of 1:41.041, good enough for 8th place on the day. Shinya Nakano completed 47 on the South African circuit and placed 7th with a best time of 1:40.980.
“Today we worked a lot on both motorcycles – declared Nakano – and experimented with different engine components, which provided us with a lot of data. In the last part of testing we also tried out the softest tyres and were able to clock in good times. We improved a lot in respect to yesterday and my feeling with the RSV4 keeps getting better. We nevertheless have a lot of work to do to catch up with the leaders, even though I'm happy with my 7th place; just 0.7 seconds behind Fabrizio (the leader) and 0.3 seconds behind Haga (in second)”.
“Today went a bit better – said Max Biaggi – we made a lot of modifications to the motorcycle and are headed in a well-defined direction. Yet we still weren't able to completely smooth out the problem of entering into curves, the biggest issue we have encountered thus far. We are trying to pinpoint the exact origin of this problem and the only way to do it is trial by elimination with different solutions. However, we have improved a lot and are much closer to the competition. Without this issue I am sure we would not only have the fastest single lap but also be the fastest overall, something that makes me really hopeful for the time when we are able to correct it. I am sure that given the great experience and competency of the Aprilia technicians, it won't take long to fix”.