Ducati San Marino GP Friday report

Ducati Team Searches For Setup At Misano

Valentino Rossi, Ducati Team

Photo by: Ducati Corse

The first day of practice sessions at the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini featured sun, very high temperatures and high humidity levels, making quite conditions very challenging for all the riders.

Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden worked to find a setup that will work with the fairly slippery asphalt and, toward the end of the second session, the Italian managed to have a decent run with the soft tyre. Tomorrow, both riders will work to improve their setups for the qualifying session.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 11th (1:35.331)

“Fortunately, I managed to do two or three good laps at the end of the session, and to make up a few positions. We struggled because we wanted to ride with the hard tyre in order to work for the race, but unfortunately, following a promising start, I found it more difficult as the pace steadily improved. We lacked rear grip, especially with the bike leaned over, so we mounted the softer tyre at the end of the session. Today I did a ’35.3, but tomorrow we’ll try to cut at least half a second, working to also improve the feeling with the front under braking. We’ll start with the base setting from Brno and Laguna, and we’ll try some difference changes on the second bike.”

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 13th (1:35.419)

“This obviously isn’t how we hoped to come out of the gate here. I like this track okay, but it seems like every time I come here, it’s very hard to get up to speed. Basically, I’m pushing the front on corner entry and can’t get it stopped. My ideal time is ’35.0, but I can’t be consistent and put laps together. The track isn’t bad, but it’s hot and slippery and a little bit bumpy, and those things really don’t favor me on this bike. We’re definitely up against it but we’ll try a different solution for tomorrow.”