Following Round 8 of the 2016 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Honda riders Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden joined their contemporaries back on track for the Official One Day Test at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, with the majority of the WorldSBK grid taking part. Van der Mark ended the day seventh fastest after 89 laps, with teammate Hayden rounding out the top ten after doing one shy of a hundred circulations of the 4km track.           

Both riders tried the new tyre options supplied by Pirelli, with Hayden focusing on the rear and van der Mark the front. The two sides of the garage then continued evaluations begun in the private test before Round 8 at the same venue, adding a host of new information garnered during the Round proper.

“It has been a good day,” said van der Mark. “We evaluated many things without caring too much about lap-times. It was also good to return to the track straight after the end of the round. Towards the end of the day, we went back to the race set-up and tried some tweaks with suspension settings and front fork and my times were improving lap by lap. We ended the day very strong and my pace was competitive, so now we have a much clearer idea of our package ahead of Laguna.”

“We started the day in the damp and used our time to try some software updates, basically in and out laps,” added Hayden. “Everything seemed to be working quite well. Throughout the day we tried a good variety of things, including suspension settings, for the second part of the season. We made a few gains but also hit a few walls, which is normal in testing. I hoped I would have made a bigger step because my lap-times were similar to the ones I did at the start of the month. Just before lunch I tried some new Pirelli tyres with some good positives. We gave the team a lot of data to work on and hopefully we can put it all together for Laguna.”

The next Round is Hayden’s home Round at Laguna Seca, the scene of two GP wins for the American and a lot of past success, as he prepares to race there in WorldSBK for the first time. With more information from the test day ahead of heading out on track on the Fireblade for the first time at home, the scene is set for the last showdown before the summer break.