Stoner could race new Honda at Laguna
Casey Stoner looks set to race the new Honda at Laguna Seca MotoGP in a fortnight following a good display during testing.
The defending World Champion and teammate Dani Pedrosa sampled the RC213V during the test at Mugello and they finished behind Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo on Monday.
The Australian had plenty of positive feedback about the new engine, but wasn't so happy with the chassis that was tried out.
"The new engine I'm quite happy with. It gives me a lot better feeling off the bottom and I am able to ride a little smoother in the change of direction at this track. You can control it a lot better," he toldmotorcyclenews.com.
"I don't want the new chassis. I wasn't happy with it. It felt very hard and very heavy to change direction. There were no benefits, only disadvantages compared to the standard bike so I am not interested to try it further.
"I didn't get any benefits from it so there were no positive points, so I decided to stay with the standard bike. It was a little disappointing.
"We tried something else at the front of the bike and we got a little better feeling at the front and I was able to run a bit more corner speed. But it was also difficult to tell if it was improving because of track conditions or the bike. We need to confirm that in Laguna.
"But I didn't get any more feeling out of the front with the new bike and didn't get anymore rear grip and couldn't ride like I could the standard bike. Normally I can adapt quickly to a new bike and find it's good points but this time there was nothing to be really happy about."
Despite the issues with the chassis, Stoner could end up riding the RC213V motor at Laguna Seca come July 29.
He added: "If everything goes well we should be able to use it. That was the main improvement."
