The second and final day of testing at Valencia took place in sunny conditions, allowing both Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden to make full use of the available track time. Rossi worked closely together with Filippo Preziosi on the setting of the GP11 machine with the big bang engine configuration, completing 70 laps. His detailed feedback and the data gathered over the past two days will help the Ducati engineers develop the GP11 and adapt it more to the riding style of the nine-time World Champion.
Nicky Hayden spent a lot of time out on track today, completing 91 laps throughout the session and testing both the screamer and big bang versions of the engine, setting his best time on the latter version and ending up sixth fastest overall. The American was able to improve his pace from the weekend and was satisfied with the job done.
NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 6th fastest – 1:32’583
“That’s it – the season is finally over! Today was a positive day for us. We tried the screamer and it wasn’t easy to switch between engines but it was important to do a proper test on them both and get the data we need to make an important decision. I am leaning towards sticking with the big bang but we will make the decision together. In general I am happy because we have been pretty quick. We know there is a lot of work to do but we are ready to get on with it. We tried a new Bridgestone, which I liked a lot and actually I did my fastest time on it. I also went well on the race tyre we used on Sunday and we were just a couple of tenths off my best. We tested some other things that I liked but we need to test them more. I want to thank everybody in the team because they did a great job as always even though it wasn’t easy, coming on the back of two races.”
FILIPPO PREZIOSI, Direttore Generale Ducati Corse
“After these two days of tests we will go back to Ducati for a meeting, where we will decide which path to take between the two engines, the big bang and the screamer, although the information we have is pointing towards the former. It will be a decision we will make by analysing the data in depth as well as planning the way forward around all the other things we learnt at the test. The objective is clearly to allow Valentino to ride like Valentino! We know we have to improve the bike in order to achieve this, especially the front end. He has given us some very precise information and now it is down to us to use it. We would obviously have liked to give him the opportunity to go faster today but even though that wasn’t the case he has impressed everybody over the last two days with the way he works, his calm approach and his positive attitude towards everything. Nicky also worked very hard, as usual, and set a good lap time on the new Bridgestones as well as the ones we were already using, which is another big positive. Now we have to work to give them both a more competitive bike for the next test.”
Unofficial lap times 10th November 2010
1.Casey Stoner 1:32.066
2.Jorge Lorenzo 1:32.179
3.Ben Spies 1:32.322
4.Marco Simoncelli 1:32.450
5.Dani Pedrosa 1:32.497
6.Nicky Hayden 1:32.583
7.Alvaro Bautista 1:32.738
8.Randy De Puniet 1:32.836
9.Andrea Dovizioso 1:32.942
10.Hiroshi Aoyama 1:33.105
11.Hector Barbera 1:33.168
12.Colin Edwards 1:33.325
13.Cal Crutchlow 1:33.483
14.Loris Capirossi 1:33.740
15.Valentino Rossi 1:33.761
16.Karel Abraham 1:33.793
17.Toni Elias 1:34.800
Circuit Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati – 2008), 1’32.582 – 155.732 Km/h
Best Pole: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha – 2006), 1’31.002 – 158.436 Km/
