Less than twenty-four hours after the seventh round of the 2014 world championship, the Catalunya GP held in Barcelona (Spain), the MotoGP teams returned to the track at the Montmeló circuit to take part in a one-day test organized by IRTA.
Both Ducati Team riders – Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow – were present, together with Test Team rider Michele Pirro. The day’s work revolved around set-up work and the new electronic software used during the race by Pirro, and today by the two Ducati Team men.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 11th, 1’42.379 (34 laps)
“Today we put the finishing touches to the base set-up, and worked on the electronics. We didn’t have any particularly new material to try, but it’s always important to do this sort of thing, because in a weekend you never have time to work calmly on the small details. It’s good to do a day’s testing, even though we didn’t do a lot of laps. We also tried the new Bridgestone tyre and the feeling is positive, even though there wasn’t much heat in the track surface.”
Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 13th, 1’42.909 (67 laps)
“Today we had to confirm some settings from the race weekend. We improved them in a race condition, even though I didn’t set a fast time today, and I’m happier than what I was over the race weekend.”
Michele Pirro (Ducati Test Team #51) – 15th, 1’43.305 (70 laps)
“I am quite tired because I did 70 laps on the regular track and 10 laps this morning with the F1 curve! We continued to work on the new software we used in the race, and I am happy with the results. We’ll continue to test here tomorrow and Wednesday, and I hope to be able to improve these strategies even more so that they can then be used by the factory riders in the next races.”
