Rain ruins new Honda debut in Aragon

Rain stopped Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez from making their debut on the new 2014 factory Honda RC213V bike at the Motorland Aragon track in Spain today.

Light rain fell intermittently this morning preventing the Repsol Honda pair from venturing out of the pits before lunch.

The rain did eventually stop but cool air temperatures and heavy cloud cover meant the track was slow to dry. It was hoped the track would have dried out for the final two hours but any hopes of Pedrosa and Marquez evaluating the new bike were ended when the Motorland Aragon track was battered by torrential rain later in the afternoon.

For a while conditions worsened with thunder and lightning filling the skies and the only action the new RC213V saw today was when it was rolled out the back of the HRC garage for a photo call to the small group of media attending this week’s test.

Pedrosa and Marquez will try again tomorrow (Wednesday) but if conditions don’t permit them to get in a serious assessment of the new bike then Honda has put in place a contingency plan to stay for one extra day on Thursday.

Suzuki’s test and development team will test on Wednesday and Thursday, while Valentino Rossi and reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo are due on track tomorrow.

Expecting bad weather at the Motorland Aragon today, Yamaha’s factory squad opted to stay at the Catalunya track in Barcelona for a one-day session that took place in hot and sunny conditions.

LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl and Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista did complete laps on a wet track today.