Second day of testing at SepangTesting in Malaysia is continuing at a rapid pace for the riders of the Ducati Marlboro Team who today were able to take advantage of more sunny weather and continue development work on the new 800cc machine.
Both Capirossi and Stoner
improved their times set Monday and while the Italian constantly improved the settings on his Desmosedici to join the group of sub 2m03s riders, his Australian team-mate was sidelined half-way through the afternoon with forearm cramp after setting a couple of early quick laps. The first test session of the new year will conclude tomorrow Wednesday.
Loris Capirossi (58 laps - 2m02.793s)
"We made a lot of progress today with engine management and generally improved the feeling with the new bike, but in particular we worked closely with Bridgestone on some new rear tyres. At the moment I have the best feeling with the ‘smaller' profile tyre that makes the bike handle better and gives improvement under braking. It's too early however to say whether or not this is the direction we have to take with the new 800cc because last year, on this track, we also preferred this type of profile and not the larger one that we used on all the other circuits. Tomorrow we've still got some more tyres to test and I am sure that we can improve".
Casey Stoner (42 laps - 2m03.190s)
"We began the day really well: my first lap was 2m03.303s and my second, which ended up being my best time of the day, was 2m03.190s, a big improvement on yesterday. We're moving in the right direction and just need to do a lot of laps. Unfortunately however late in the morning I began to get cramp in my arms which prevented me from riding and me and the team decided to stop so as not to worsen the situation and to be on form for tomorrow. A big thanks to the Clinica Mobile (Dr. Monica Lazzarotti and physiotherapist Francesco Chionne), who luckily are present at the test and who are helping me to resolve this problem which I have never had before.
Hopefully they'll help me to continue tomorrow so I can carry on testing and developing the bike and tyres".
Ducati Corse
