While Honda is clearly dominating the competition in pre-season testing, having topped all 7 days of testing in Sepang this month, Yamaha are closely behind their Japanese rivals. And while some expected Ducati to be in a close 3rd place, Suzuki has constantly outpaced the Italian manufacturer during the last test.
That leaves Ducati in 4th place in the performance reports at the end of February, a position which Rossi certainly doesn't want to be in (especially since he'll be losing even more time with his unhealed shoulder injury).
“We couldn't be satisfied with this test because we didn't reach our goals,” admitted the Italian rider, who ended the Sepang test this week with the 11th best time of Day 3. His teammate Nicky Hayden did not break into the Top 10 either, ranking 12th in the timing reports.
“Instead, we're 1.8 seconds back, and our rhythm is also lacking. After the first day, we thought we could do it. We had started well and were able to make the bike work with the hard tires, which is good. After that though, we didn't take steps forward."
“Although we have some good ideas for the electronics that I'm optimistic will solve those problems relatively easily, I'm not as confident about the chassis set-up. We tried hard, but we haven't yet managed it.”
In addition to Ducati's poor pace, Rossi was also forced to see only two days of track time this week, due to a flu that kept him outside the Ducati garage on Wednesday.
“I'm able to brake hard, but I'm still having trouble in mid-corner. It was definitely a disadvantage to only ride two days instead of three because we had to rush at the end and try many things in order to understand as much as we could,” he added.
Google News