POSITIVE FIRST DAY OF 2010 TESTING FOR DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM AT SEPANG
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 team-mate. 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”.
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. 