The second Official Test of 2012 began in Malaysia today, but the Ducati Team riders and technicians had abbreviated work schedules due to a dirty track surface in the morning and rain in the afternoon.
Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden discovered a number of positive aspects despite a rain shortened first day at the Sepang International Circuit. The Italian took advantage of the wet track in order to test a number of changes to the rain setup of the GP12, while Hayden, despite his fitness still not being at 100 percent, was able to start working with the bike, making changes throughout the day that improved his corner exits.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 6th, 2’03.132 (32 laps): "I’m obviously still not at 100 percent, but considering I had shoulder surgery three weeks ago, it went better than I expected. I felt much better than at the last test and was able to give some good feedback, so I owe a big thanks to Dr Ting and his staff. This is the first time I could really ride this bike well, and I enjoyed it. The chassis gives you a lot of feedback, and it’s easier to understand the limit. We made some changes throughout the day and I pretty much got quicker every exit. It would have been nice to ride in the rain, but I didn’t want to do something silly and crash on the shoulder. Hopefully it’s not too sore when I wake up so I can do another half-day or so tomorrow."
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 8th, 2’03.245 (39 laps): "Paradoxically, we actually started too early this morning! It would’ve been better to start at 11 like the others, because before that the asphalt was quite dirty, and by the time the conditions started to improve, the tyre already had about fifteen laps on it. We decided to save the second tyre for the afternoon, but it started raining after lunch. As a result, we didn’t get much done today. We didn’t even start working with the new software that we have available for this test. On the plus side, we were able to confirm that the feeling in the wet is still pretty good with the GP12. Weather permitting, and with a couple more tyres at our disposal, I think that tomorrow we’ll be able to work a little more comprehensively and understand things a bit more."
