Rossi, Hayden Test At Misano
EMILIA-ROMAGNA, Italy – Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden returned to action today at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli for a one-day test that the Ducati Team spent working on chassis and electronics tests.
Hayden, who only rode in the morning due to his still-healing right hand, tried the frame and swingarm that his teammate had used in Sunday’s race and had a positive first impression.
Meanwhile, Rossi tried a version that had the same geometry but a different stiffness.
“In order not to stress my hand too much, we only did two runs today — one with basically my race bike, and one with the new frame — but it was nice to get an idea of the chassis,” Hayden said. “I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to notice the difference, but I could actually feel more than I expected. I felt better with it, for sure. I had more confidence because there’s better front grip for braking into the corners, and because of that, also better turning. I think it’s certainly a step in the right direction, straight away, and I’m happy with the work Ducati has done. Because I was able to brake a bit differently, I’ll probably need to stiffen the fork spring a bit, but already, it was a good step. I’m quite happy, and at Aragon we’ll start to work on the setup.”
Rossi, who is sixth in the current MotoGP standings, completed 53 circuits during the test.
“It was a good day. Today we tried a different chassis that had a different stiffness, but honestly, I didn’t like it a lot,” Rossi said. “It was an improvement in some areas, but we had some new problems in other areas. In the end, it’s not a real improvement, so I don’t think we’ll use it again. But the positive thing is that we tried a new swingarm that I liked a lot because it gave me more edge grip and more rear grip under acceleration, and it helps the bike to stay more stable on corner exits. So of the two things, one worked. I think we’ll use the new swingarm starting in Aragon, so there we’ll see what our potential is on another track.”
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Posted by NSSN Staff
on Sep 17 2012 Filed under Latest Headlines, MotoGP, Motorcycles.
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