@DucatiMotor •@MotoGP • (February 2, 2016)-Ideal weather conditions greeted the MotoGP riders for the second of three days of testing organized by IRTA at the Sepang International Circuit on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Both Ducati Team riders have one of the new 2016 Desmosedici GP bikes available together with one of last year’s models. Today they used exclusively the 2016 version and they were accompanied in this development phase by the two-time world champion, Australian Casey Stoner, who focused on vehicle and electronics set-up work on the Desmosedici GP15 of the Test Team.
The morning’s favourable weather conditions allowed almost all riders to set their reference time right away, but a spectacular crash on the main straight involving Frenchman Loris Baz on the Avintia Racing Ducati brought out the red flags and a delay of more than one hour in track activities.
All three Ducati Team riders returned to the track again at around 4 pm to complete the rest of their work load, which included testing Michelin front tyres and further refinements to the electronics set-up.
Tomorrow, the third and final day of testing will see testing activities again in the hands of Andrea Iannone, Andrea Dovizioso and Casey Stoner.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 2’01.052 (8th), 39 laps
“Today we focused mainly on tyre testing, seeing as Michelin they provided us with different compounds for the front. For the rest we tried to make a first few steps with the settings of the Desmosedici GP, even though there was very little time remaining. In this phase it’s important to continue comparing the new Desmosedici GP with last year’s bike, but tomorrow we will focus a bit more on searching for an ideal setting for the new bike.”
Casey Stoner (Ducati Test Team #27) – 2’01.103 (9th), 45 laps
“It’s been another good day today. Being on track with everybody else, with the good track conditions, gave us better indications of what we are feeling in comparison. We had a lot of different things to test, but unfortunately after Baz’s crash we had to change tyre compounds and retest everything. We went through a lot of the stack we had to do, and got some very positive input from the electronics, the engine braking, the clutch and in every aspect of the bike, together with a few things we can improve, and we gathered a lot of data to move forward from there.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2’01.723 (14th), 35 laps
“It was a bit of a strange day, for several reasons. We had a few minor issues, which slowed us down a lot and conditioned the whole day. Unfortunately we were unable to carry out the scheduled back-to-back tests. This morning, after I had looked at some other riders, I got a better idea of the direction to take in my approach to the track with the Michelin tyres. We are still a bit off the pace, and for this reason there is still some way to go.”
<
Discussion about this post