Nicky Hayden Makes Aspar Team Debut Testing Honda RCV1000R

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

American racer Nicky Hayden made his first appearance with the Aspar Team, testing the Honda RCV1000R production racer at the official MotoGP post-season test at Spain’s Valencia circuit.

Hayden completed 76 laps on the RCV1000R, posting a top lap time of 1:32.576, putting him 13th on the time sheet. The test time was 0.188 seconds faster than his top lap time in Sunday’s race at Valencia on the Ducati Desmosedici. His new Aspar teammate Hiroshi Aoyama tested the RCV1000R yesterday, posting a best time of 1:33.020 over 38 laps, while Gresini Honda‘s Scott Redding tested the production racer on both days, completing 57 laps in total with personal best time of 1:34.195.

By comparison, 2013 MotoGP Champion Marc Marquez posted the best overall time in the test, lapping at 1:30.536, a 1.251-second improvement from his best lap on Sunday. Marquez however was riding on the RC213V which uses Honda’s proprietary ECU, pneumatic valves and seamless gearbox.

“It was exciting to get to work with a new team and a new bike. This is a new project and there is a long road ahead but that’s what makes it so interesting. I really enjoyed my first contact with the bike,” says Hayden. “There is a lot to learn and I need to build a relationship with the mechanics but I am really happy with today for a first shakedown. The team has helped me a lot and I had a lot of engineers around me all day. We can see how much work there is to do but the base is solid. We couldn’t have had better conditions to ride in today. It would have been nice to finish with some stronger lap times but overall we’re happy.”

[Source: Aspar Team]

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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