NICKY HAYDEN FASTEST ON FINAL DAY OF SEPANG MOTOGP TEST

Repsol Honda factory rider Nicky Hayden put in another marathon stint of 77 laps making a total of 228 for the three-day test. The American, MotoGP World Champion in 2006, spent the day working hard on finding a perfect balance for the machine testing suspension and tire combination. The team did a lot of work on the front forks but the rear link changes were restricted to spring rates.

Gresini Honda riders Shinya Nakano and Alex De Angelis, had a relatively quiet final day of testing. Nakano decided to sit out a few hours of the day when the track temperature rose to an incredible 52 degrees making serious tire development work for Bridgestone extremely difficult.

Nakano returned to the track late afternoon but did not better his time and he did not try a race simulation test as hoped. The team will run a full race distance when the MotoGP teams return to Sepang early next month to continue pre-season testing.

De Angelis worked diligently but in short bursts due to pain from a wrist tendon injury he sustained in a 'Tank slapping' incident yesterday. De Angelis has impressed with his calm measured approach to his MotoGP debut season. The young Sanmarines worked with the Nissin brake technicians successfully finding a good balance of stopping power and brake management. The Gresini team also worked on tires in a bid to reduce a front-end chatter problem and were partially successful before high temperatures changed the track surface grip.

LCR Honda teamster Randy de Puniet, who had been fastest man on the opening two-days of the test, worked like a slave all day. In the morning the Frenchman worked on tires before moving on to evaluate various chassis and Ohlins suspension settings on the LCR Honda RC212V. As the curtain came down on the first test of 2008 De Puniet was "Very happy with both my performance and the way the team have worked over the three-days."