Valentino Rossi was not hiding his feelings as Sepang testing came to a close on Thursday. After missing out on proceedings due to flu-like symptoms 24 hours earlier, the Italian returned to the circuit today but could manage no more than the eleventh quickest lap time for Ducati.
“We can’t be satisfied with this test because we didn’t reach our goals, which were to finish close to the top six and especially to reduce the gap to the front,” he said, having ended the day with 59 laps to his name.
“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 tyres, 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 setup. We tried hard, but we haven’t yet managed it. 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. We were prepared for that possibility, but it started to drizzle, making it impossible to push.
“There could be some good solutions for the future, but we weren’t able to confirm them. This circuit hasn’t traditionally been favourable to the Ducati. The next test is in Qatar, where the track is different, so we’ll see if we can go faster there.”
Series
MotoGP
Personalities
Valentino Rossi
Teams
Ducati Team
Other
Get your official MotoGP tickets at Sportstadium.com
| Pos. | Time | Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  C. Stoner | 01:59.665 | 37 |
| 2. | D. Pedrosa | 01:59.803 | 38 |
| 3. | M. Simoncelli | 02:00.163 | 46 |
| 4. | A. Dovizioso | 02:00.541 | 45 |
| 5. | B. Spies | 02:00.678 | 32 |
| 6. | C. Edwards | 02:00.966 | 29 |
| 7. | J. Lorenzo | 02:01.003 | 48 |
| 8. | A. Bautista | 02:01.194 | 34 |
| 9. | H. Aoyama | 02:01.328 | 48 |
| 10. | H. Barbera | 02:01.346 | 21 |
| Full results | |||
| Valentino Rossi | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| More Valentino Rossi photos | |||
English
Nederlands
Español
Italiano
