Ducati Team riders Rossi, Hayden struggle to improve GP11.1 and GP11 at Brno – MotoGP news
Ducati Team riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden had a rather different first practice day at Brno, Czech Republic.
Rossi will ride GP11.1 and Hayden will use GP11 for Cardion AB Grand Prix on August 14, 2011.
After a tough first free practice session where Rossi ranked 11th, he was able to improve lap times in second session of the day. His best ranking for the day was seventh with lap time of 1:57.745 seconds.
Rossi said, “Today we started better than we had at recent races. Although I’m seventh, our time isn’t bad, and Spies and Dovizioso are ahead but close. This is positive, but the really important thing will be whether we can continue improving like this
tomorrow as well, cutting more tenths from my time, session by session.”
Rossi claimed that he was doing well on the second section of the Brno circuit. While cornering in turn 1 and 2, he lost time due to lack of traction and aims to improve in those areas.
The start of the second session was a little tough due to riding on hard slicks. The first thought was that the hard compound would be better for the race day but they slid a lot.
After switching to softer compound, the pace improved and there were also some changes made in the front end that helped to increase the feel.
After testing the both compounds, it is very likely that the Rossi will use soft slicks for the race day. On the second practice day it will be confirmed whether the soft tyres will be able to take pressure or not with increased number of laps.
The American rider was searching for grip on his Desmosedici GP 11 and fought to achieve good results on day one.
Hayden said, “It was a frustrating day, really. You have two weeks off, and you work hard and do all the little things that will help you when you come back. Then to have your first day back be probably your worst day of the year is pretty frustrating.”
The traction issue remained even in corner entry as he was feeling risky to make fast turns. Due to the lack of traction, the rear end was not sticking to the tarmac. Let’s see how both of Ducati riders fare throughout the weekend.
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