With a weekend of dry track and favourable racing conditions, the Ducati Team had its best dry race so far this season at the Gran PremiAperol de Catalunya, as it continued to close the gap on the front-runners.

Valentino Rossi finished 17 seconds off the top in seventh place, while Nicky Hayden dropped off the pace slightly into ninth, after loosing feeling in his right hand.

Team Manager VittorianoGuareschi was pleased with the day’s proceedings: “We had the best race in dry conditions and we reduced the gap [to the front]. We worked well last week in Mugello [private test] because we introduced the new electronics package. This improved the driveability and I think this is why we were closer to the group in front of us. We do however need to improve the bike some more.”

 

Despite the improvement in pace, the Ducati Team is not resting on its laurels, as Guareschi outlines what is next on the agenda: “We have two important tests, here and in Aragón, and we want to improve the settings. We want to solve our under-steer problem and improve our understanding of the correct weight distribution. These are the areas we’ll be investigating.”

Rossi was also pleased with the team’s progress: “Today went pretty well, and in some ways, it was the best dry race of the year so far: I finished closer to the group in front of me, and the gap in lap times was about half a second, which is the smallest that we’ve had so far. Of course we’re still only talking about a seventh-place finish, but nonetheless we reached our current potential in the dry. Now we have two days of important testing, and we’ll try the aluminium swingarm again, along with some setup ideas in an effort to gain a bit more front grip, to help the bike to corner better. We hope to take another small step, because the riders who were ahead of me today weren’t ‘too far’ ahead.”

Nicky Hayden, who had shown top-Ducati pace all weekend, was disappointed that his physical condition affected his weekend: “It was very difficult for me because I started having a problem with my hand going to sleep. My pace was okay in the beginning, but after that group got away I really just tried to bring the bike home without crashing, since I couldn’t feel how hard I was braking. [In the tests] I think we can make some improvements.”

As the Ducati Team heads to the fifth round of the MotoGP™ World Championship at the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya, off the back of a stunning podium at the wet in Le Mans, Valentino Rossi’s crew chief Jeremy Burgess is looking forward to the technical challenge the fast and flowing Catalunya circuit brings.

He comments: “For us it’s always been a pretty good track. From an engineering point of view I like to go to Catalunya, it’s got a very difficult turn 3 with a lot of temperature and a lot of spinning in the tyres, so you need a very strong tyre for Cataluyna.

“It has all sorts of things from slow corners to fast corners, and the fast corner on the straight, as we saw some years ago, created quite an exciting finish to the race with Valentino and Jorge [Lorenzo]. On the fast straight the bike will be very fast, and if the weather’s good there’s always a very good crowd so it’s always a good place.”

Burgess explains that at such a varied track it can be very difficult to get the balance right with regards to bike set-up: “A set up that the rider’s happy with is always important. We need a bike that turns well and a bike that gives, particularly in Catalunya, a lot of stability on the rear and lot of good grip for the long turn 3 and the longer corners coming back down onto the start finish straight. So it is quite difficult to get that balance right, and you always tend to be working at it. The tyres take a lot of work and a lot of load.”

The Circuit de Catalunya is one of Rossi’s favourites, having served as the scene for nine of his victories, and while Nicky Hayden has only achieved one podium finish at the track, he also appreciates its fast, open layout.

Rossi, who achieved his Ducati-best position of second amid treacherous conditions in France two weeks ago is positive about the weekend ahead: “Two Sundays ago, we got a nice result because we took advantage of the wet track, a condition in which we know we can be competitive, but we’re aware that we must continue improving in normal, dry conditions. The Catalunya circuit has always been one of my favourites, and although it’s hard to imagine another podium, we must still do our best to finish with the front riders.”

Nicky Hayden mirrors Burgess’ thoughts on the tyres’ edge grip: “Although I’ve struggled a bit at Catalunya the last few years, I do like the track, and it’s one of the calendar’s great GPs. It’s pretty wide, open and fast, and it’s really important to have good edge grip, especially in the last bit with all the long right-handers.”

Following the Catalunya Gran Prix, Ducati, along with other MotoGP teams will carry out a one-day test at the circuit on Monday 4^th June.