Australia’s former MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner says he’s a making progress with the RC212V that he’ll contest the 2011 season with for the factory Repsol Honda team.

The 2007 title winner finished last week’s Sepang test in Malaysia a consistent third overall behind surprise leader Marco Simoncelli and teammate Dani Pedrosa, albeit just 0.054 behind the top time.

“In general we made some nice steps forwards, alternating between the different chassis, trying to get a good feeling for them,” Stoner explained.

“We managed to make the bike work a lot better with used tyres and a different traction control system that catches the tyres a little quicker when they start to spin – which assisted with our corner speed.

“I’m really pleased with what I’ve found in this test, in fact it’s a little better than what I expected. I’m happy with the overall package, just to be able to focus with such a good base set-up has been really important for us.”

Testing will continue at Sepang on 22-24 February, marking the second official test of the season.