Troy Bayliss again set
the pace for the Ducati Xerox Team on the first day of a two-day FGSport
official test at the Santamonica circuit in Misano Adriatico. Championship
leader Bayliss, who had not raced at the Misano circuit since 2002, powered
around in a time of 1m33.814s, just three-tenths of a second off his best
lap of four years back and seven-tenths of a second quicker than Troy Corser
(Suzuki).
"On the last exit we had some spots of rain so it wasn't worth trying
to improve in the last few laps" declared Bayliss. "Overall we had a very
good day, I haven't been to Misano since 2002 so everything went OK and I
felt comfortable on the bike just like I have been recently. Pretty much the
first exit I got straight into good times this morning, and just continued
testing a few tyres for Pirelli today and doing a little work on the bike,
but honestly we haven't changed it too much. Towards the end we did some
really good laps on the race tyre just two three tenths slower than what I
qualified on in 2002 so getting into the 33s on the race tyre was really
good. The track is in a good condition, it's maybe a bit bumpier since the
last time here. Tomorrow I think I can go a few tenths quicker on the race
tyre and maybe do a 32.9 if everything goes well."
Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi set fourth quickest time today on the second
999F06, the 24-year-old Italian ending up just a fraction slower than Fonsi
Nieto (Kawasaki) after 62 laps.
Fourth quickest time is not bad and I am quite happy with the way
things went" declared Lanzi. "I encountered traffic in the last few laps,
the most important ones, because everyone was out on the track trying to
improve, but I don't want this to be seen as an excuse. We tried a few new
things on the bikes and tomorrow we will continue with the development work.
I only tested rear tyres today but we did a lot of work on the bike set-up
and the tyres I'll leave to the end in view of the race here in June. The
track was good this morning but in the afternoon it got a bit worse and
there were a few drops of rain towards the end".
Steve Martin said: "We had a nice safe day and, although it is a pity we weren't able to use a qualifier, I am more concerned about finding a setting for the race than doing fast times during these two days. I was also able to test an engine specification with a lighter crankshaft and, while there was no noticeable difference, I did go faster on that bike by around half a second."
Craig Jones said: "I was happy to do more than 80 laps and my times came down gradually throughout the day. I hit a bit of a brick wall mid-way through the afternoon session but conditions were not too great then and times were dropping. I like the circuit as it has lots of flowing corners and the very fast corner on to the back straight and I am hoping to start tomorrow where we left off today as I think it is now just a case of getting more track experience. But I am still learning more about the bike with every session and am not too far off the point when I can start pushing for lap times."
Times:
- 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m33.814s
- 2. Corser (Suzuki) 1m34.522s
- 3. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m34.752s
- 4. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.819s
- 5. Haga (Yamaha) 1m35.096s
- 6. Fabrizio (Honda) 1m35.131s
- 7. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m35.160s
- 8. Xaus (Ducati) 1m35.208s
- 9. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1m35.405s
- 10. Foret (Suzuki) 1m35.586s
