“Exciting day” for Preziosi as Rossi works on 2011 Ducati engine

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

The Italian rider spent the majority of the first day of the Valencia Test riding with a big bang engine on his Ducati debut, and General Director Filippo Preziosi was very pleased with what was accomplished.

Preziosi delighted with Rossi's first Ducati feedback

The first day of the long awaited post-season MotoGP test at Valencia started with grey skies and light drizzle this morning, which left the track unsuitable for the opening hour of the session between 9am and 10am when, luckily, the sun emerged to gradually dry the track surface.

At 10:55am Valentino Rossi arrived in the garage where Filippo Preziosi, Jeremy Burgess and his crew as well as engineers and technicians from Ducati's Reparto Corse were waiting for him. At precisely 11:46am the official Ducati test rider Franco Battaini took to the track for a first shakedown on the black coloured GP11 and finally, at 12:23pm, the nine-time World Champion rode the Ducati Desmosedici for the first time.

Rossi started out on a Desmosedici GP11 fitted with a 'big bang' version of the engine, which he used for virtually the entire day as he worked on geometry and other settings. As the day drew to a close he made one final run on the 'screamer' version.

Filippo Preziosi, General Director Ducati Corse

“It has been an exciting day for sure. The main thing that hit me today was Vale's positive feedback and his capacity for analysis. Today he tested the GP11 with the 'big bang' engine on a standard setting, which he modified step by step to adapt it to his riding style. His first comment when he lifted his visor up was a positive one about the power delivery and then he gave some impressive technical details. We certainly have a lot to do to adapt the bike to his riding style but it is really nice and very interesting to work on something like that. We worked on the geometry and setting today to see how the bike responded and to get a bit of experience working with both Vale and Jeremy (Burgess). At the end of the session he went out on the screamer version but we will make more of an analysis between the two engines tomorrow because they deliver the power in very different ways - the big bang has a more regular power curve whereas the screamer is more aggressive but also more powerful.”