Wednesday, 2 February 2011
The Italian completed a productive second day at Sepang, where he was able to test different fairings on the Desmosedici to aid his recovering shoulder.
Valentino Rossi’s position on the timesheet at the Sepang Test may be uncharacteristic for the Italian, but as the last two days have passed the Ducati rider has gained increasing encouragement from what he has been able to do on the Desmosedici.
Twelfth fastest on day one with a best time of 2’03.365 Rossi improved by almost eight-tenths of a second on Wednesday to end 13th but with a lap of 2’02.597, and he explained how his shoulder was affecting his progress.
“Being able to ride again today is important because the shoulder isn’t getting worse under the continued strain. Everything is fine while riding under 2’03”, then when I try to take another second off the strength diminishes and the pain increases,” he said. “It needs more time, without doubt. The situation will improve, but it will be a wait until May. Only then will we be able to work extensively on the bike, because everything we do now could be thrown into doubt when we record more competitive times, when my physical condition is perfect.”
Discussing the areas focused on during day two in Malaysia, Rossi continued: “Today we tried a lot of things, especially with the aerodynamics. We focused on comparing fairings and riding with and without wings, and I’m more inclined towards the latter option. The fact is that I’m not in the best physical condition and with the wings I find more resistance in corner entry, which is not good for my shoulder. One of the things we need to improve is going through the turns, because I can’t turn the bike as I would like to. Tomorrow we’re going to continue working with the same enthusiasm as we had today, and at the end of the Test we’ll leave with a lot of information.”
Another important aspect worked on by Rossi and his crew was tyres, which he indicated had a big impact on the handling of the GP11.
“We also did a Test with the tyres, and that’s something that the Ducati depends a lot on as its behaviour changes a lot depending on whether the tyres are hard or soft,” he stated. “The results haven’t been bad, but we haven’t solved the problems with vibration in the front yet. When it starts to vibrate the bike is really difficult to handle.”
Having seen Wednesday’s fastest rider Dani Pedrosa post a best lap some 1.827s quicker than his own, Rossi assessed the competition with whom he has been sharing the track over the past two days.
“Everybody seems to be very much in shape, both the bikes and the riders. It’s normal to go harder in Testing than during a GP weekend. When you have three days in which to ride you can ride fast all day because it makes the bike perform better, and above all because there’s more rubber on the track,” he said, before adding a comment about his aims for the third and final day on Thursday.
“For this reason I think that tomorrow I can go even faster. Our objective is to improve our times, but mainly to improve my feeling with the bike and find how to ride with less difficulty,” he concluded.
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