The second winter test in Sepang, Malaysia, began today, but the riders'
and technicians' work schedule was affected first by a dirty track
surface and later by rain.
Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden
nonetheless discovered a number of positive aspects in the shortened
day. The Italian decided to take advantage of the wet track in order to
try out some changes to the rain setup, while the American received
confirmation that the recent operation on his left shoulder was
successful, and despite his fitness still not being at 100 percent, he
was able to start working with the GP12.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 6th, 2:03.132 (32 laps)
"I'm
obviously still not at 100 percent, but considering I had shoulder
surgery three weeks ago, it went better than I expected. I felt much
better than at the last test and was able to give some good feedback, so
I owe a big thanks to Dr Ting and his staff. This is the first time I
could really ride this bike well, and I enjoyed it. The chassis gives
you a lot of feedback, and it's easier to understand the limit. We made
some changes throughout the day and I pretty much got quicker every
exit. It would have been nice to ride in the rain, but I didn't want to
do something silly and crash on the shoulder. Hopefully it's not too
sore when I wake up so I can do another half-day or so tomorrow."
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 8th, 2:03.245 (39 laps)
"Paradoxically,
we actually started too early this morning! It would've been better to
start at 11 like the others, because before that the asphalt was quite
dirty, and by the time the conditions started to improve, the tyre
already had about fifteen laps on it. We decided to save the second tyre
for the afternoon, but it started raining after lunch. As a result, we
didn't get much done today. We didn't even start working with the new
software that we have available for this test. On the plus side, we were
able to confirm that the feeling in the wet is still pretty good with
the GP12. Weather permitting, and with a couple more tyres at our
disposal, I think that tomorrow we'll be able to work a little more
comprehensively and understand things a bit more."
