Rossi and Ducati Make Major Progress at Sepang
With the first of 3 official pre-season MotoGP tests completed, the Ducati MotoGP team has made significant progress during the last 3 days at Sepang. Team riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden finished 10th & 8th respectively on the time sheets and picked up ~2 seconds per lap over the course of the test.
Rossi declared himself to be very happy with his progress especially in terms of how many laps he could make given the state of his recovering shoulder. He continues to both adapt the Ducati to his wishes whilst adjusting his own style to capitalize on the Desmosedici’s strengths, in particular, stability and engine performance.
Rossi 10th:-“I’m very happy because before coming here, I expected to do 20, 30 laps per day, and as it turns out, I did around 40 each of the first two days and over 50 today. Of course I was really finished by the end, in part because the rest of my body has to work differently; my left arm has to do extra work, so it’s very tired. But I’m really happy with my shoulder because it’s improving day-by-day, and even after the stress of having ridden a MotoGP bike at the limit, I don’t have any problems: now it’s just a question of strength. My mobility has improved a lot, and I no longer think my physical limitations cost me a second; let’s say I lose five or six tenths, especially on braking and in corner entry. Anyway, we worked well today too, and we were able to collect a lot of data and solve the chattering problem we were experiencing. Obviously, there’s still a lot to do, but compared to the start of the test, we’ve definitely gotten closer to the base setup we’re looking for. There’s no need to change the Desmosedici’s character; we need to take advantage of its best characteristics-its stability and its engine-and improve the other areas, especially the in-corner behavior, to make it turn better. In any case, the overall evaluation of the test is definitely good; today we’re a second off the top riders, and also in the afternoon, riding with race tires, the distance stayed around seven or eight tenths. I still have to do more kilometers in order to understand other aspects of the GP11 but, although I have to change my riding style a little, I now feel much more at home with the Ducati.”
The factory bikes finished ahead of the other Ducati teams and one of the biggest improvers over the course of the test was Nicky Hayden whose Thursday time was 2 seconds faster than his Tuesday one.
Hayden 8th:-“It’s great to be back here, and to be back on the bike. We had three important days with a lot of work to do. Of course I don’t like to still be so far away from the leaders, but we’ve reduced the gap every day. Today it looked like it could rain at any time, so we did a lot of laps in the morning and found some stuff we like. We chased the chatter a lot, which cost us time trying to figure out what’s going on. Last year, that was something we only had a problem with at this one track. We don’t want it anywhere, but it could be a problem that’s not related to the GP11 in general and is specific just to this track. We also tested some tires for Bridgestone and gave them some information that can help down the road. We realize there’s still a lot of work to do, and that starts with the rider. When we come back, we’ll keep reducing the gap to the front guys.”
link: Ducati Corse
Honda continued to dominate out front, with Marco Simoncelli setting a blistering 2:00.757 lap ahead of Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso. If taken at his word that Rossi could have gone 5 or 6 tenths faster without his shoulder issues, then the factory Ducati would have been about 6th or 7th – still half a second off Simoncelli’s stunner. The pre-season testing schedule continues back at Sepang in just a few weeks on February 22nd for a further 3 days.
To celebrate our second birthday we plan to give away a copy of Ring of Fire: The Inside Story of Valentino Rossi and MotoGP by Rick Broadbent. To be in the draw to win all you need to do is to be a fan of the Ducati News Today Facebook page. Already a fan? Then you don’t need to do anything, you’re already entered. If not,simply head on over to our Facebook Page, hit the like button and you’re in. Too easy. The competition will run for 3 weeks with the draw occurring on Saturday, February 19th at 9am US Eastern time with the winner announced shortly afterwards. All fans of our Facebook page at that time will be eligible to win.
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Photos courtesy of MotoGP.com
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by All Things Ducati, Ross Douglas and maya gamez, chisa ica. chisa ica said: RT @ducatinewstoday: This just In: Rossi and Ducati Make Major Progress at Sepang http://bit.ly/gpESCa [...]
The bike sucks..all the hipe in the world is not going to change it..hopefully Rossi won’t get killed on it. I am worried about the new superbike going frameless also.
[...] Rossi made significant progress at Sepang despite considerable pain from his recently operated on shoulder. He finished the test in 11th spot having finished the post season Valencia test last year 15th. He was just over a second behind surprise fastest man, Marco Simoncelli. with Vale estimating he was losing up to 0.6 of a second a lap due to his shoulder. [...]
[...] improved comfort in his shoulder compared with the first test, setting the fastest Ducati time just 1/10th slower than his best in the first test and boding well for further improvement as the test [...]