Ducati Team riders Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden improve at Brno – MotoGP news
Ducati Team rider duo Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden improved their race pace during the race weekend at Brno.
In the Cardion AB Grand Prix, both Ducati riders reduced the time gap from the riders ahead.
After test and enhancing his GP11.1 during practices, Rossi was able to challenge Factory M1 and at one time, he really pushed Marco Simoncelli to the limit.
Rossi said, “I’d say we are pleased, as we took a step forward. I must say that Filippo and Ducati have been intelligent, because just with some small changes, we were able to get a good result, improving in both wet and dry conditions and in both qualifying
and the race.”
After the practice, Rossi feels to be better aboard his GP11.1. He has improved corner entry and also the braking section. The small changes have also revised his front-end feel by increasing the feedback.
Rossi was lacking grip in the initial laps as the tyres took a little long to heat up. Without grip, Rossi struggled to keep up. Rossi also said that he did not have a great start off at Brno as he had at Laguna Seca.
A good start could have entirely changed the results, because Rossi had continuous pace throughout the race. He was fast enough to ride along Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies even for a while and held off Simoncelli. Despite a sixth place finish, the results
show a lot of improvement.
The Italian rider claimed that he did slow down in the final laps. If he had not, Rossi would have finished within ten seconds of time gap from Stoner.
The American rider worked on his GP11 throughout the race weekend and made a little progress for the race day.
Hayden said, “It’s been a really tough weekend right from when we got the bikes out of the crates from Laguna, but we chipped away at it. The guys have worked extremely hard, and we got better and better. We even made a change after the morning warm up that
actually helped a bit.”
Hayden faced a lot of tyre spin still though he managed a seventh place finish. Now Hayden and his teammate Rossi will be preparing for the IndyGP.
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