Honda has revealed that that its new 800cc MotoGP machine, which made its first public appearance during testing at Motegi on Monday, has a V4 engine.

The machine, to be raced in the 2007 MotoGP World Championship, has been the subject of much speculation - with Honda keeping its engine design secret right until Monday's test.

Honda currently uses an adventurous V5 engine configuration for its 990cc RC211V, but will now join its rivals in switching to four-cylinders for 2007. Ducati and Suzuki already use a V4, whilst Yamaha and Kawasaki favour an inline-4 layout. Honda's MotoGP rivals are all set to use scaled down versions of their existing 990cc engines for the first year of the new 800cc rules.

The new bike was given to factory Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa for the first time on Monday, while championship leading team-mate Nicky Hayden concentrated on improving his 990cc machine for the upcoming title showdown with Valentino Rossi. Honda test riders Tady Okada and Gaku Kamada were also present.

By the end of 30 laps, Pedrosa had recorded an impressive time of 1min 48.210secs - just 0.4secs slower than his fastest 990cc lap in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix and 0.37secs faster than Rossi's Monday best on the new Yamaha 800. However, Pedrosa was 0.8secs slower than the Bridgestone shod Ducati 800, in the hands of Sete Gibernau.

"The first feeling is that the new bike runs well and this is very important - it works normally and everything feels fine," said Dani. "The engine character feels a little different and this is to be expected but the package is quite similar to the RC211V. Some things about the bike feel smaller and the rear seat is much shorter which makes the whole bike look more compact. The bike has some characteristics which are a little more like a 250cc but it's still a MotoGP bike. The lap time today is quite good for a first test but it's too early to say whether it will be faster than the 990. The cornering speeds feel very similar to the RCV – though the corner speed at Motegi is very low because there are many hairpins, so it's very difficult to say definitely whether it'll be quicker. This was a good first test though."

Yamaha's Colin Edwards was the fastest rider on Monday, setting a 1min 46.68secs with the 990cc M1, while Gibernau was a head-turning second fastest overall on his 800 debut. Hayden was fourth quickest, behind Kenny Roberts Jr, but - unlike team-mate Pedrosa - will continue testing on Tuesday, when he will get his first taste of the Honda 800.

"Overall it was a pretty good day - I was able to run 1min 47sec laps easier than I had been over the weekend so even though the bike hadn't changed I feel like I was riding a bit better," said Nicky, who will head into the final two rounds of the season just 12 points ahead of Rossi. "Today we mostly tested some different parts for the clutch, I did some practice starts and tried to find something that worked into the corners and can still handle the starts. We don't want to use anything that's too risky because the last thing we can afford right now is a DNF. I didn't try the 800 because I've got plenty of work to do with the current bike and I don't need to take on too many new projects right now. It looked really cool though and I'm looking forward to getting a crack on the 800 tomorrow."


Leading Motegi MotoGP test times – Monday

1. Colin Edwards USA Camel Yamaha Team 1min 46.68 secs
2. Sete Gibernau SPA Ducati 800 1min 47.41 secs
3. Kenny Roberts Jr USA Team Roberts 1min 47.64 secs
4. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team 1min 47.70 secs
5. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati 800 1min 47.89 secs
6. Kousuke Akiyoshi JPN Team Suzuki MotoGP 1min 47.89 secs
7. Dani Pedrosa SPA Honda 800 1min 48.21 secs
8. Tady Okada JPN Honda 1min 48.43 secs
9. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha 800 1min 48.58 secs
10. Nobuatsu Aoki JPN Team Suzuki MotoGP 1min 50.48 secs



2006 Japanese Grand Prix:
Pole position: Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro 1min 45.724secs

Fastest race laps (by manufacturer):
Yamaha: Valentino Rossi ITA Camel Yamaha 1min 47.288secs
Honda: Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna Honda 1min 47.375secs
Ducati: Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro 1min 47.381secs
Kawasaki: Shinya Nakano JPN Kawasaki Racing Team 1min 47.826secs
KR211V Kenny Roberts USA Team Roberts 1min 47.962secs
Suzuki: John Hopkins USA Team Suzuki MotoGP 1min 48.446secs