Tyre switch 'unfair and unsafe', Honda out of Aragon

The Repsol Honda team will not take part in Wednesday's official MotoGP test session at Aragon.

The defending world champion's announced the decision after Monday's post-race test in Catalunya, where Dani Pedrosa again criticised Bridgestone's decision to supply only the new spec front tyre from the forthcoming Silverstone round onwards.

Although the majority of teams and riders prefer the new tyre, which has been an additional option at recent rounds, the factory Honda riders are far more comfortable on the original spec.

Pedrosa blasted the decision as unfair - and since the new spec tyre will not be available at Aragon on Wednesday, Honda sees little point in testing.

"We had already issues with chattering on the rear and now we have also with this new front [tyre]," said Pedrosa, runner-up in Sunday's race and third in the world championship.

"I will keep my mind open and keep trying hard with my team to improve the situation, but it's just an unfair situation for Honda.

"The reason they say for changing the tyre is safety, but at the moment it's not safety for us, we are riding on the limit every lap.

"We decided not to go to Aragon also because we don't have the option to test the new front tyre there."

That means Pedrosa will next be on track, with the new front tyre, during Friday practice for the British Grand Prix.

Team-mate Casey Stoner also dislikes the new rubber, but insists he will make it work.

"The new front tyre has created more chatter in the front, we don't like it but we'll make our bike work around it," declared the reigning double world champion.

Six of the 21 riders opted for the older spec hard front tyre in Sunday's race - Stoner, Pedrosa, Karel Abraham (Cardion AB), Randy de Puniet (Aspar), Aleix Espargaro (Aspar) and Mattia Pasini (Speed Master).

Stoner, now 20 points behind title leader Jorge Lorenzo after finishing a Repsol-worst four at the flag in Catalunya, revealed that he concentrated heavily on solving the ongoing chatter issues with his RC213V on Monday.

"We were in and out of the box a lot and each time we had something new, something different, to try and resolve the issues that we've been having," said the Australian. "We didn't work on set up at all, we just tried everything we could think of to reduce the rear chatter.

"To a certain degree we seem to have improved it, which is a positive step for the future, but until we get to the next track it's going to be hard to tell. It's still there to a certain degree, so we still have work to do but we've definitely made a step forward."

Pedrosa and Stoner set the fifth and sixth fastest test lap times, and were within 0.38sec of pace setter Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3)