With this past weekend’s Catalan Grand Prix behind them, the Ducati Team and most of the other MotoGP riders were back in action today for a one-day, IRTA-organized test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The team’s work schedule called for a continuation of the back-to-back comparisons between the bike that Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden have raced thus far, and the ‘laboratory’ version that has only been used in battle by Ducati Test Team rider Michele Pirro (at Jerez, Mugello, and Barcelona).
Once again, Hayden was more comfortable on the Spanish track, as the American posted the second-best time of the day. His 1:41.955 lap was just five-hundredths off of Jorge Lorenzo, while Dovizioso finished fourth-best on the day with a time of 1:42.417.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 2nd, 1:41.955 (73 laps)
“Overall, it was kind of an up-and-down day. We were here with the lab bike, but unfortunately, I’m consistently faster with the standard version. We want to do a step and come closer to the front guys, but at the moment, I can’t find it with the lab bike. I hope I at least got some good information for the engineers. I spent some time on my standard bike, and I had a pretty good feeling with it today and was able to check a couple of things. We also tested Bridgestone’s new hard rear tyre, which has good potential. We haven’t been able to use their current hard for most of the year, which makes race weekends tough, but I had a good feeling with the new one today and did a 42.4 on it. Hopefully that will give them some direction to help us as the summer gets hotter.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) 4th, 1:42.417 (56 laps)
“We did the comparison between the two frames on a track that’s much different from the others where we’ve tested. We still have to decide which one to use, but the difference is very small. Just like in the tests at Jerez and Mugello, the new frame seems better on corner entry but moves a bit more on exits. Anyway, the positives and the negatives are both minimal. Now we’ll decide which frame to use at Assen, but there aren’t big differences. Using one or the other won’t change much, so we’ll wait for more new parts.”
Bernhard Gobmeier – Ducati Corse General Manager
“After the disappointing race yesterday, we had some encouraging signs today. We tested a bunch of new things on the engine side, on the tyre side, and on the chassis side. Regarding the chassis, we’re still evaluating the data from the back-to-back comparison, and we’ll decide in the next few days which one to use.”
Ducati Team Press Release
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