Ducati Team riders Nicky Hayden, Valentino Rossi struggle for better package at Laguna Seca
Ducati Team duo Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi compared both Desmosedici GP versions during the free practice sessions at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
In first free practice session Hayden was seventh while Rossi came ninth in final time sheet. Later in the second free practice session, Hayden and Rossi were dropped to tenth and eleventh positions respectively.
Nicky Hayden said, “It’s nice to be back at Laguna, a track I love, and things started off okay with the new bike. It was my first time with it, but it wasn’t something I needed a lot of time to get familiar with since I’ve ridden the GP12, which is similar.”
The American rider is making an effort to evaluate both versions of Desmosedici GP and feels the GP11.1 is the better machine. His further claim was that the gearbox on the improved version works really well which provides better gear shift.
Hayden is also testing new components on the bike including different springs on shocks but the newly designed gearbox is one of the best features he has experienced yet. The main aim is to get best results in race and the team is still sorting out which
version will be the best for race day.
The Italian is companied by Jerry Burgess of the American Grand Prix. Burgess came back after missing two rounds, Mugello and Sachsenring. He preferred to further test the Desmosedici GP11.1.
Rossi said, “After yesterday’s technical briefing with Jerry and the team, we decided to continue with the new bike, so I only used the GP11.1. We started with one bike that had the Sachsenring setup, which has a significant change to the weight distribution,
while the second bike had a standard setup.”
Rossi claimed that he likes the setup that he used in Germany. The Italian’s team is working to maintain an exact balance on the bike with an increased rear end grip. It will help the bike to pace up closer to the top riders. His effort is to get better
results than the last two races with a good grid start.
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