Imola (Italy), Tuesday 29th June 2010: The Ducati Xerox team, having only just concluded the Misano race weekend, drove straight to Imola’s “Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari” where, together with the other Superbike teams, they are participating in two days of official testing, scheduled by championship organiser Infront Sports. The penultimate race of the 2010 World Superbike season will take place at the Imola circuit, from 24th to 26th September.In conditions not dissimilar to Misano (35°C air, 46°C track) factory riders Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga worked hard during roughly seven hours of track time. The work this morning mainly involved set-up refinements being made in light of September’s Imola round and, with no particular innovations to test in the second half of the day, the team concentrated on tyre testing (Pirelli having brought various new solutions for teams to test).
During the morning’s session Michel was the first, and only, rider to lap under 1’49, recording a few very fast laps while testing the new front tyre solution. Consistently fast, Fabrizio made his fastest lap (1’48.6) just before the lunch break, to close this first session on top, four tenths ahead of Haslam in second. Noriyuki, together with his technicians, did not concentrate so much on times and worked instead to increase levels of traction and absorption, closing the morning twelfth.
By the early afternoon the track temperature had increased to 50°C and Noriyuki and Michel both decided to wait before going back out on track. The work continued from about 15.00, with Haga improving significantly on the times set in the morning and Fabrizio maintaining his impressive pace; both riders tried several of the new rear tyre compounds with some very positive results, a sign of Pirelli’s hard work. The Roman rider closed day one with the third fastest time overall, four tenths from Haslam and Crutchlow. Noriyuki finished today with the fourth best time.
At the end of this first day, the Ducati Xerox riders have completed more than 70 laps each. Work continues for both Noriyuki and Michel here at the Imola track tomorrow.
Michel Fabrizio
“It’s very hot here today. In the morning, with the new Pirelli front tyre, I made the first of my fast laps and in the last minutes of the session I was able to improve even further which I’d say is a good result in these conditions. The problem is that when we come back for the race in September it may be much cooler compared to today; anyway it’s been a positive day and I’ll be doing my best to make further improvement tomorrow.”
Noriyuki Haga
“This morning we started with one bike set up as per Misano, and one with last year’s Imola setting. We seem to have improved on last year’s setting and then we concentrated on improving the level of bump absorption, a job we’ll continue with tomorrow. In the afternoon I changed our usual rear for one of the new solutions and it immediately made a big difference. I tried three of the new rears in the end and all of them are fairly similar, and seem to perform well; I was able to find good pace. Tomorrow we’ll try the new front tyre and see if we can improve on the times.”
TIMES (Day 1): Haslam (Suzuki) 1’47.9; 2. Crutchlow (Yamaha) 1’47.9; 3. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1’48.3; 4. Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1’48.8; 5. Rea (Honda) 1’48.8; 6. Corser (BMW) 1’49.1; 7. Xaus (BMW) 1’49.1; 8. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1’49.1; 8. Checa (Ducati) 1’49.2; 9. Skyes (Kawasaki) 1’49.4; 10. Toseland (Yamaha) 1’49.6
