Although rain interrupted the work the Avintia Racing team had planned for the three day Test, the end of the final day the team was encouraged with the progress they made. The Avintia Racing bike now has a strong base upon which they will continue development at the upcoming test at Jerez ahead of Qatar GP.
Yonny Hernandez and Ivan Silva were able to make positive strides with both the electronics and the chassis of the BQR-FTR. Both riders agreed that important steps were made in solving engine problems they suffered in the previous test at the same circuit. Although many improvements still remain, the two lowered the times obtained at the first test and are optimistic for the future of the team.
Yonny Hernandez said :
"I’m happy because I’m back with the team and on the bike. At this test, I learned to work with the traction control and we advanced our position to the front. Unfortunately, the rain and some problems with the electronics on my bike slowed our progress a little, but at least the last day was productive and we were able to make progress with the set up. The test ahead of the first GP of the season will be important to pull together the final bike with to get the most out of the bike."
Ivan Silva said :
"We worked primarily on the engine mapping and the traction control at this test. It was a shame about the rain on the first days limited the work we were able to do, but it was the same for everyone. The last day I focused although we still have problems with the front wheel we have a little more grip and can turn the bike easier. Now that the engine runs perfectly, the next test we’ll do with focus to getting the final bike which more competitive more than old."
WORK REMAINS FOR THE DUCATI TEAM
The Ducati Team made progress with the new electronics package introduced at the second Test at the Malaysian circuit, with Rossi and Hayden satisfied with the results of development in that arena which helped to reduce their scared to the front considerably compared to the first test. However, they are still searching for an ideal reason and ended the day tenth and eleventh.
Rossi stayed on the track until the last minute to complete as much work as possible for the Ducati engineers, while Nicky Hayden continued testing into the afternoon although still not being in perfect physical condition. On the American’s very last exit, he had a minor low-speed fall in Turn 1 that left him injured.
Valentino Rossi 2’01.550 (57 laps)
"One small positive note to the day is that we reduced the gap to the front a little bit. It was 1.2 seconds, and now it’s 1 second. It’s also nice that the new electronics work well, but it hurts being down on the timesheets compared to all the others. Team tried a bunch of things to take a step forward from the first test, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to do it and they were actually worse. It was harder for Valentino to ride well compared to three weeks ago, especially Rossi corner speed. It’s true that this test was more difficult in terms of weather and track conditions, but it seemed to affect us more than the others. Honestly, Valentino expected to do better than tenth. they were also unfortunate because at the best part of the day, when Rossi did a 2'01.5 and they had some tyres to try to lower the time further, Team had a problem with the fork that cost us some time. Maybe without that team would have cut another and been further up, but our pace is still about seven tenths back. They were not pleased with how it went this time, but we have to try and work hard and see what happens at Jerez."
Nicky Hayden 2’01.609 (44 laps):
"Nicky would prefer to have been closer to the front, but it's Nicky first real test of the year. The bike feels better on braking and into the corner, and Nicky like the feedback it gives Nicky. Also, the lap times don’t seem as affected when the track gets hot and greasy. Team need to work on some corner exits. Team have plenty of ideas, as there are a lot of things they didn’t get to try this week because of the weather. Toward the end, Nicky lost the front end in Turn 1 and crashed, but it was an easy one. Nicky Hayden happy with how my shoulder is coming along. He hope that with three more weeks of recovering and rehab, it should be close to 100 per cent for Jerez."
Filippo Preziosi as General Manager, Ducati Corse
Team had to concentrate a lot of work into a relatively short time. Clearly, situations like that make it more difficult to achieve maximum performance because the setup changes continuously. Today 2 march Valentino is tenth and Nicky is eleventh, and obviously we would prefer to be further up. Anyway, they both liked the new electronics package that team had for this test. We’ll keep working hard between now and the next test at Jerez, where they will try to put everything team have together and optimize
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