Ducati Xerox Velencia Test Concluded
DUCATI XEROX SQUAD CONCLUDES TWO DAYS OF WET TESTING AT VALENCIA
Valencia (Spain), Thursday 28th January - the Ducati Xerox Team and riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio travel home tomorrow having participated in a two-day test session at the Valencia circuit, back to back after last weekend's Portimao testing.
Yesterday, a combination of very low temperatures and pouring rain unfortunately prevented the Ducati Xerox riders from exiting on track; conditions were just not favourable enough to be of use to the team. Luckily the weather improved this morning and although the track was damp and the cold persisted, Nori and Michel were nevertheless able to get in half a day's worth of riding, on track from midday to nearly 5pm.
Today the factory riders and their technicians worked to refine the set-up of their Ducati 1198 machines and re-tested several rear tyre solutions that were also tested during Portimao's recent tests. Even though the track conditions were not optimal for this type of tyre test (air temp. 11°C, track temp. 12°C), the times registered by the two riders were extremely encouraging. Nori recorded a fastest lap of 1m34.0s while Michel closed the testing with a fastest time of 1m34.3s.
The team is now at home until mid-February when it departs for Phillip Island (Australia) for the final pre-championship tests, followed immediately by the opening round of the 2010 World Superbike season.
Noriyuki Haga"Unfortunately yesterday was a total loss due to the wet, cold conditions but today we were able to ride all afternoon. We continued with the work started at Portimao, testing suspension settings and various tyre compounds. I also tried a new clutch which seemed to perform well, and my lap times were fairly fast seeing as it was extremely cold. I'd say we're very happy, although we've seen that the privateer Ducatis of Checa and Byrne were also very fast so I guess the first race of the season will be very interesting; I can't wait to race!"
Michel Fabrizio"We haven't been very lucky with the weather, with rain both here and in Portimao. But it's all gone really well today, bearing in mind that it was for us the first, and last, day. We found a good pace and are pretty satisfied with the lap times. It was a bit difficult to evaluate the tyres well in these conditions but, all in all, it went a lot better for us than it did at Portimao and I feel like we're back on track."
TIMES (unofficial) - Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.0s; Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.3
Sepang Test Day One Reports
MOTOGP: Sepang Test Day One Reports
Written by: Media Release 02/04/2010
Sepang (MAS)
Positive First Day For Ducati Marlboro
Today the full complement of MotoGP riders roared back into action for the first time in 2010 at Sepang, after a first day exclusively available to test riders, who performed ‘shakedown’ sessions on their machines yesterday. It was a positive start for the two Ducati Marlboro Team riders, who were 2nd and 7th fastest respectively.
Stoner, who expressed his satisfaction with the new engine, was quickly on the pace and then focused on the set-up of his bike trying to solve a problem of chatter. Hayden, who was also testing a new fairing today, set a good pace but struggled with the same problem as his teammate. The pair are now looking forward to working more on the base settings of the GP10 and are confident of improving it tomorrow.
Weather-wise it was a demanding day for all of the riders, with ambient temperatures reaching 40°C and the thermometer hitting 60°C on the track. Around fifteen minutes before the scheduled end of the test, a light rain shower brought it to an early conclusion. The track will be open again tomorrow from 9am to 5pm for the second and final day of the test.
Casey Stoner 2nd fastest 2’01.902 (42 laps)
“This first day was a bit difficult to understand: we started off with a setting that was quite good and that allowed us to make reasonably good
lap times. We thought we would improve as the day went on but we had a few problems with chatter. We tried a lot of different combinations trying to make the bike feel a little bit better but we couldn’t really get an improvement. To be honest it was difficult to work out why because the track conditions were particularly difficult - it was so hot that it was actually hard to understand if you were make an improvement on the bike or not. In any case I’m really happy with the new engine, I think that with the other one we would have struggled more. Now the bike in general feel very good, very balanced and I’m happy with it. Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler tomorrow so that we can understand better if the changes we try are the right ones”.
Nicky Hayden - 7th fastest 2’02.792 (59 laps)
“Overall the day was positive, sure it went quite fast actually and at the end of the day when we were ready to do some more laps the rain came and cut it a little bit short. It would be nice to have the chance to do some more laps. But overall the bike was feeling quite good. We made a couple of little tweaks that helped us but we struggle a lot for edge chatter. There’s not much testing before the start of the season so we’ve got to move fast: day one is in the bag, we have established a good starting point and we go from here”.
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