HM Plant Honda had an early finish to its third and final day of testing at the Calafat circuit in Spain today, as rain halted progress.

The team had already completed two successful full days on circuit and after finding further improvements this morning, they decided to wind up the final day a few hours early due to the conditions.

Both Ryuichi Kiyonari and Shane Byrne are feeling confident of their early progress with their Fireblades ahead of joining their British Superbike rivals at the next test and, Jason O’Halloran continued to improve his pace on his third day on the team’s Superstock specification Fireblade.

Kiyo said:

“I was feeling happy this morning and we had lots of things to test today but then the rain came and it was not wet or dry which is disappointing. We have lots of work still to do and we must continue to push when we get to Cartagena, but I think we have had a good start to testing.”

Shakey said:

“We made some chassis changes this morning but we had a list of things we wanted to try this afternoon so it was a shame that we never got the chance today, but we still have time at Cartagena to press on with the list! It has been a good start so far so we just need to keep cracking on and I look forward to getting out with some of the other riders at the weekend.”

Jason said:

“It has been a mega few days for me and it is great working with the team. It was disappointing the weather meant we had to finish early, but we come away from Calafat feeling good and have a good idea on the direction we need to try at Cartagena.”

Team Manager Havier Beltran concluded:

“It was a shame for the whole team that we had to call an early end to the test today as both Kiyo and Shakey have lots still to test but were on a roll. We wanted to test some new parts this afternoon but with the drizzle it wasn’t either wet or dry so we were in a bit of no man’s land so we decided to pack up early and get ready to travel to Cartagena for our final two days in Spain.”

The whole HM Plant Honda team and riders will set off early tomorrow for the six hour drive to Cartagena, for a further two days on track before returning to the UK.