Friday brought rain and an early end to the three day test but even that could not hide the progress potential that seems possible for Ducati in both Motogp and SBK trim.
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Ductalk: What's Up In The World Of Ducati
Ducati News Roundup Curated by Vicki Smith for Ducati.net |
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Friday brought rain and an early end to the three day test but even that could not hide the progress potential that seems possible for Ducati in both Motogp and SBK trim.
For the rest of this story click HERE
Scooped by Vicki Smith for Ducati.net |
Nicky Hayden lowered his lap time by almost one-second during day two of testing at Jerez, putting the Ducati rider under the best WSBK time from Wednesday in the process.
For the rest click HERE
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Nicky Hayden remains confident Ducati can solve a persistent understeer issue that has dogged the Desmosedici MotoGP project in recent years.
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The weekend’s last rain shower fell less than an hour before the Spanish Grand Prix, leaving time for the water to evaporate enough to have the race declared dry, so the MotoGP riders started on slick tyres. Nicky Hayden, who started from the first row, was involved in a back-and-forth battle for third place with Crutchlow and Pedrosa. The American then steadily lost ground as grip decreased, eventually finishing eighth. Valentino Rossi, who started from the fifth row, steadily improved his pace as he climbed to eighth place.
Both riders will continue working on the setup of the GP12, starting this Friday when they again take to the track for free practice at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril, and also during the post-race test on Monday.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 8th
“It was fun for a couple of laps. We know our bike is great at generating heat in the tyres, and for the first few laps, I was able do what I wanted. Then about the time it looked like the other guys’ tyres came up to temperature, mine had already started losing grip, especially in the front. I was pushing wide in places and guys started coming past me. We knew it would be tough in the dry. My setup was okay, but to really try to go with those guys wasn’t possible. I was able to close back down on Bradl at the end and have a bit of a race the last couple of laps, but he beat me. Eighth place is certainly not what our goal is. The bike’s got a lot of potential, but at the moment, the gap to the rest is still too far. Hopefully we can get a dry weekend in Estoril and try to be closer to the front on Sunday.”
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 9th
“The positive thing from today’s race is that I think it might help us to do a bit better in the coming events, starting next week in Portugal. Today we used a setup that’s new for us, and it gave some positive signs. First we tried some solutions to give me a feeling similar to what I’ve had in the past, but it doesn’t work. Today’s setting was very similar to what Nicky has used for a while, though not exactly the same. I must get used to riding the bike a bit differently than I’m used to, and today that caused me to lose some ground in the early laps because I was basically starting blind. I wasn’t going bad once I found my rhythm, in the sense that I was matching the times of those who were fighting for sixth place, and I was able to push until the end, doing a 1:41.0 on the penultimate lap. This helps me to be a little more optimistic as I look ahead to the next races because if I’m able to ride a bit better, it could be a place for us to start from. In fact, we’ll use this setting when we start on Friday. Naturally, we’ll have to keep working, be more effective in qualifying so that we can start further forward, and improve acceleration and a number of other things, which we’ve already discussed at Ducati as we try, together, to improve the GP12.”
Vittoriano Guareschi (Team Manager)
“Today we wanted to see both Nicky and Vale finish the race closer to the front, but overall, there are several positive things to take from this weekend as we continue our work and our development path for the GP12. We received confirmation that we’re very fast in the wet, and in the dry, we had a good qualifying session with Nicky, who made the first row. Nicky was very competitive in the early laps of the race, and now we must also improve over race distance with him. Vale found qualifying difficult, but in the race, using a setting that he’d never tried, he felt okay and was steadily gaining confidence and going faster. These are signs that show us the direction to follow starting with the next round in a few days in Portugal.”
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“In the wet we're going to take our chances!”- Nicky Hayden.
Nicky Hayden claimed his first front row MotoGP start since the Portuguese Grand Prix in 2010 after a stunning qualifying effort at Jerez on Saturday.
The American has put a torrid winter blighted by injuries behind him, looking comfortable aboard the new Ducati and enthusing that it was probably the best Desmosedici he has ridden.
After qualifying however the former world champion was keen not to focus too much on his front row and is thinking only of the race.
“I'm happy to be on the front row of course, but today don't really matter,” said Hayden. “It's the result that counts so I'll concentrate on that.”...for more click the headline link above.
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The qualifying session for the MotoGP round in Jerez de la Frontera featured unpredictable weather conditions, as had been the case in all of the free-practice sessions. Nicky Hayden posted the third-best time on a mainly dry track, earning a spot on the front row with Lorenzo and Pedrosa, while Valentino Rossi was unable to replicate Friday’s very strong wet performance and finished with the thirteenth-best time.
The qualifying session featured the driest track conditions of the event so far, although the situation was far from ideal, with cold asphalt and wet patches from the morning rain. Hayden found a setup with which he managed to ride the track quite well, while Rossi had a harder time and wasn’t able to be as effective.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 3rd (1:40.563)
“To be on the front row is really good for us. The track conditions were quite strange, different compared to what we’ve had the whole weekend. It certainly helped that we tested here in the dry not too long ago, as we had a relatively good base setup. We went out hard right from the gun, because we knew some spots of rain were coming. I moved up a couple times and thought, ‘Okay, let it rain now,’ but then I’d drop back down and think, ‘Oh, don’t start raining yet.’ It got better near the end, but it was still tough because there were a lot of wet patches on the track, which made it easy to make mistakes. In the end, we took advantage of the strange situation and made the front row, so I’m really happy for my team. Now we’ll try to make it happen when it counts tomorrow.”
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 13th (1:42.961)
“Qualifying didn’t go well today. The conditions were quite difficult because it was cold and the asphalt was dry, but not completely. Anyway, it was like that for everyone, so that wasn’t the problem. Unfortunately, I’m still having a very hard time riding and entering corners, both on the brakes and off. I’m slow to achieve maximum lean angle and don’t carry the necessary corner speed, so when it’s time to accelerate, I’ve already lost too much ground. We’ve been trying to solve this situation for a while, but we haven’t managed it yet. We have to keep working on the setup because Nicky had a nice session today and really did a good job. Comparing the data, we’ve confirmed that we’re losing all our time on corner entry. Anyway, we went a bit better in the wet, so we’ll see what conditions we have for the race.”
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Ducati team-mates Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden were ranked second and fifth during Friday afternoon's wet practice session for the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez.
Although presently struggling to match the factory Hondas and Yamahas in the dry, the 2012 Desmosedici thus seems to have inherited the strong wet weather characteristics of its carbon-fibre predecessor.
That is despite the change to a new all-aluminum frame, plus the bigger 1000cc engine for 2012.
Over the winter the Bologna factory spent a lot of time analysing why their 2011 bike was much more competitive in the wet.
Speaking at Jerez on Friday Hayden gave an illuminating response as to why this may be.
“We tried to understand why in real rain we had a bike that was fast,” said Hayden. “We used to think with the carbon chassis that in the dry we were too stiff and our theory was that the stiffness actually helps to heat the tyre more, because in the rain you don't always want something real soft. ...Read the rest by clicking on the headline above
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Valentino Rossi third in Spanish free practice, Nicky Hayden sixth
The Ducati Team enjoyed a good start to the Spanish MotoGP weekend in Jerez de la Frontera, with Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden very fast from the beginning. Bad weather affected the day from the beginning, with morning conditions being neither completely wet nor completely dry. This made the first session useless for both Rossi and Hayden, who elected to stay in the garage.
The asphalt was wet enough in the second session to permit the use of rain tyres, and both Ducati Team riders were fast. The Italian was at the top of the time chart for some time before eventually finishing with the second-best time in FP2, behind Dani Pedrosa. His teammate finished the session a respectable fifth. In the combined times for the two sessions, Rossi and Hayden were third and sixth respectively, despite having sat out the morning.
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 3rd (1:51.440)
“We go pretty well in the wet. We’re happy to be second this afternoon because it confirms that the GP12 has the same good feeling in the wet that last year’s bike did, and that’s important. I felt good immediately today. We worked on the setting a bit but because we had already started with a good feeling, I was able to immediately ride at the limit and do some good times. Now we have to wait to see what the weather does tomorrow, and especially on Sunday.”
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 6th (1:52.254)
“It’s a shame about the weather. This morning it wasn’t really wet and wasn’t really dry. If we had unlimited rain tyres, I probably would have gone out and had a look, but with rain forecast for the whole weekend, I didn’t want to waste any. We did some laps in the afternoon and checked a couple things. It was hard to say if we made any improvements because the track dried out at the end and was almost ready for slicks. The bike felt decent in the wet, especially the geometry and turning, but it lacked some grip on the edge, which is where we’re we’ll focus tomorrow.”
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The former champion says the setup for the hairpin is crucial...
Hayden says Jerez is a 'connect the dots' track
By MotoGP desk
Image by Ducati Corse
Ducati's Nicky Hayden has identified the final two right-hand corners are the key to a fast laptime at this weekend's Jerez MotoGP round on a track he says you have to be connect the dots.
The Spanish circuit, which is arguably the most kart-track like on the calendar, requires a lot of hard braking and Bridgestone are bringing the new softer compound tyre for its debut.
“I really enjoy the Jerez GP. In some ways it’s like the first race all over again, because it’s a little bit different than Qatar. We’re back in Europe, with our trucks and all the crowds. It’s also a special track. It’s really tough, with very few straightaways, so you have to ‘connect the dots’ and do some hard braking," said the 2006 world champion....more on the headline link above
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Despite posting the fastest time of the day, Nicky Hayden wasn't happy with the lack of time to continue playing catch-up.
The second of three days at the Jerez MotoGP test was significantly affected by changing weather conditions, with a light but steady rain falling on the Andalusian circuit all morning. Both riders took to the track at approximately 2:30 p.m. for a few exits with rain settings.
Only toward the end of the day did the asphalt dry enough to allow the use of slick tires, with which Nicky Hayden, on his third-from-last lap, came very close to his best showing from yesterday, posting the fastest time of the day.
Valentino Rossi was among the riders who didn’t take a final run with dry tires, and as a result, he didn’t improve upon the time that he’d set in the rain in the early afternoon....more