A damp track in the morning and rain in the afternoon ruined today's
testing schedule for the Borgo Panigale team, which however concluded
its winter tests outside Europe with a positive balance and with the
Desmosedici GP6 already on the pace and well-sorted.
Sepang (Malaysia), Thursday 16 February 2006 - Once again bad weather
conditioned today's final day of testing for the Ducati Marlboro Team as
it continues with the development programme for the new GP6 in view of
the start of the MotoGP World Championship.
A damp surface in the morning kept everyone in the pit garages until 12
o'clock, when the riders went out on a relatively slow track. At about 2
o'clock another shower brought proceedings to a halt until 4 in the
afternoon. A further twenty minutes of track time were available before
thunder and lightning and a heavy downpour brought an end to the test.
As a result, both Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau were unable to
conclude the scheduled programme and complete their long-run with the
new Bridgestone tyres.
The test session was particularly unfortunate for Spanish rider
Gibernau, who had been sidelined on day 1 by a gearbox problem, and then
on day 2 with a stomach complaint.
Things went better for his team-mate Capirossi, who was able to get
through a lot of work with his Desmosedici GP6. Loris is clearly
satisfied with the bike that he will race this season and is confident
he can count on tyres that will be at the same competitive level as his
GP6.
Loris CAPIROSSI (29 laps - 2m01.92s);
"It was a real shame that today we were unable to do the scheduled
long-run. In the morning we found a rear tyre to do the run with, but
the rain ruined our plans. During twenty minutes of dry time in the
afternoon, I did a 2m01.9s in the three laps available so I'm happy with
that. The bike is performing well and the tyres are improving all the
time. We'll see how it goes at the IRTA tests in Barcelona and . keep
our fingers crossed".
Sete GIBERNAU (33 laps - 2m02.65s);
"These last three days have been pretty unlucky for me: on Tuesday my
bike had gearbox problems, yesterday I didn't feel well and today I was
still a bit ill and the storms played their part as well. After just a
few laps I was really tired and it was tough in this heat. In any case
we have seen that that the path we started to follow during the test in
Phillip Island is the right one and I'm satisfied with it. We're
preparing a good base for the start of the championship: we've still got
a lot of work to do and all the problems in this last test session have
not given us a hand for sure".
With testing concluded at the Malaysian circuit, the Ducati Marlboro
Team will now return home to prepare for the IRTA tests from 3-5 March
at Barcelona, the traditional pre-season MotoGP appointment.
