Honda: We have a lot of work to do...

Repsol Honda team manager Makoto Tanaka admits HRC still has "a lot of work to do" in order to make the RCV competitive in time for the season opening Spanish Grand Prix, at Jerez on March 26.

Tanaka's rider Nicky Hayden was the fastest Honda rider on all three days of the Catalunya test and set the second fastest time during the wet BMW Award.

However Hayden - the only GP rider working with the latest 2006 version of the RC211V, which he will campaign in the 17-round world championship - was only eighth fastest overall in the dry and a worrying 1.5secs from Yamaha's world champion Valentino Rossi.

The American was also only 0.2secs clear of Makoto Tamada, riding an updated 2005 spec RCV, on the end of test timesheets - suggesting the new 2006 factory machine currently offers little advantage.

"It would have been nice to run in the dry (on Sunday). There's still a lot left to do, but I feel that we're on the right way," said Nicky. "I'll keep on working hard getting ready. We've got plenty of work to do at the next test so it would be nice to have some good weather in Jerez. I'm sure it will be a three full days of testing."

"Over the three days of this test we had some very good results, especially on the engine side, but we still have an issue with rear traction," detailed Tanaka. "It's disappointing that we couldn't go as fast as we'd have liked here and we have a lot of work still to do, but we know what we have to work on."

Behind Hayden and Tamada, the three other Honda riders present at Catalunya - Casey Stoner missed the test to recover from shoulder surgery - were Dani Pedrosa (in 10th), Marco Melandri (in 12th) and Toni Elias (in 14th). Meanwhile, the RCV powered KR211V of Kenny Roberts Jr was an eye opening 11th.

Perhaps the clearest sign of Honda's problems is the performance of 2005 MotoGP runner-up Melandri, who had been pressuring the like of Yamaha and Ducati during overseas testing - but is now searching for a set-up.

"We continued making satisfactory progress in understanding the problems that affect us," said Marco at the end of the Catalunya test. "In a roundabout way the (wet) track conditions actually helped us with the set-up of the bike but we still have to work hard to find a comfortable setting for corner entry. I'm already looking forward to the next set of tests at Jerez - we have to make the most of the remaining time available to us before the start of the world championship."

The three-day Jerez tests starts on Friday.