Nicky Hayden was satisfied to have tried out the Desmosedici GP12 in the wet at Jerez on Saturday, but Valentino Rossi was left disappointed at what he viewed as a lost day.
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 tyres, 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 did not take a final run with dry tyres, and as a result, he did not improve upon the time that he had set in the rain in the early afternoon.
Nicky Hayden:
"It’s a shame about the weather because I’d like to take advantage of as much time as possible to work on the bike, since I lost so much time in the past few months. That’s how it was today though, and it does no good to complain, especially since I had the chance to try the GP12 in the rain for the first time, improving my feeling little by little. We took a long break when the track started to dry out, and we put on the slicks at the end, even though there were still some wet patches out there. I was able to do a couple exits to try the two little changes that we’d planned yesterday. Considering that the conditions weren’t perfect, it’s positive that we quickly come close to my best time from yesterday. Now we hope the weather will let us work well tomorrow, because we’d like to improve some details before Qatar, especially with traction in the fast corners."
Valentino Rossi:
"I’m sorry to have lost practically the entire day of testing, even if we still did three exits with wet tyres and a wet set-up, to confirm the feelings we had in similar conditions at the last test. Otherwise, there’s not much to say. We couldn’t work well today, but the forecast for tomorrow is better, so we hope to be able to continue working on the set-up that we identified at the end of the day yesterday."
Ducati Team press release
