Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Ducati Team

  • Ducati Among The Best At Sepang

    Ducati Among The Best At Sepang

    Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso chose not to wait for Ducati Team’s 2015 bike debut to clock fast times this week, securing a position in the top four time slots each day in Malaysia.

    At this week’s Sepang test, Ducati focused primarily on gathering data for the forthcoming Desmosedici GP15, but in the meantime managed to record multiple lap times that placed it consistently among MotoGP’s top teams. Iannone’s day three time of 1:59.006 was enough to give him the third spot overall, proving that his transition from Pramac Ducati to the factory team is going smoothly if not excellently.

    “There has been a lot of work over the last three days, and I’m also happy with my new team: the guys have done a great job,” Iannone said. “Now I’m really anxious to try the new GP15 at Sepang 2, but in any case I’m happy with the way we have improved in the last few months.”

    Iannone took full advantage of the cool and dry day three, shaving over two seconds off his day one time. His final time was .526 seconds off Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez at the top of the charts.

    With a time of 1:59.874, Dovizioso placed seventh on the final time sheets, overshadowing his impressive fourth and second fastest times on days one and two, respectively.

    “I like Sepang a lot: I always manage to go well here and our speed is really good compared to that of our rivals,” Dovizioso said on day two after recording the second fastest time.

    Aboard the Desmosedici GP14.3, an evolution of the GP14.2 that debuted last season, Dovizioso and Iannone concentrated on chassis and electronics setups. The GP15 was originally set to arrive in time for the first test, but it was recently announced that it will debut at Sepang 2 later this month.

    “I am still using last year’s bike, with several important updates, but I’m really curious to try the new bike at the end of the month,” Dovizioso said. “The GP15 will be quite different from this one, but all the work we are doing is useful feedback for the new bike, and so the work in these three days is very important.”

    If the Desmosedici GP15 shows any marginal improvement upon the current lab bike, the Repsol Honda and Movistar Yamaha teams will have to seriously consider another duo of factory competitors in Ducati Team this season.

    Of the riders recording the five best final times, Iannone was the only rider not to finish in the top four in the championship in both of the last two MotoGP seasons. Aboard the Pramac Ducati in 2013 and 2014, Iannone finished 12th and 10th, respectively, in the points.

    MotoGP testing will continue at Sepang later this month, then at Losail in March before the start of the 2015 season at Losail.

  • Grand Prix of Japan Faces a Tough Task In Following Aragon Race

    Grand Prix of Japan Faces a Tough Task In Following Aragon Race

    The Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon was a chaotic and entertaining 800th premier class Grand Prix. While fans weren’t treated to a close race for the win at the line, it certainly wasn’t a one-bike runaway decided before the halfway point. Actually, somewhere in the middle of all the action was a short-lived, but intense, race for the lead between the two Repsol Honda riders.

    Equally as chaotic as the race was any effort to keep up with the several storylines unfolding as the race progressed. Jorge Lorenzo capturing his first win of the season at his home track was the statistically important event of the day.

    More intriguing was the top three riders in the points standings experiencing wrecks in their limit-pushing decisions to race on slick tires in wet conditions (exception: Rossi, who wrecked before rain arrived).

    Possibly even more intriguing were the two Brits and a German finishing in the top five, taking the spots typically occupied by Spanish and Italian riders.  

    But the most intriguing narrative to come out of Aragon was the Ducati 14.2 situation. While the other events I mentioned were byproducts of risky racing in the rain, isolated incidents that ended at the Aragon race, the Ducati story will still be creating a buzz when the Japan race starts. The Italian manufacturer’s first fielding of a new, heavily modified bike ended in both riders, Iannone and Dovizioso, crashing at Aragon. To some degree, the Ducati riders showed promise, which might come off as strange considering both of their Ducati 14.2 efforts ended in wrecks, but further analysis suggests otherwise.

    Andrea Iannone qualified on the front row and started the race strong. He pulled out to an early lead and effectively defended it through the first lap. What’s more, he engaged in tight racing with Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, and put up a fight that we wouldn’t have expected earlier this season. Hopefully Japan offers dry conditions and we’ll see what Iannone can do on this bike in a long run, because his early departure from the Aragon race left me wondering what could have been.

    Dovizioso wrecked in qualifying, which undoubtedly put a damper on any momentum he could have built for the weekend, so when he also crashed out of the race, it wasn’t as unpleasant of a shock as watching Iannone’s day end. But Dovizioso, too, may have had more to offer than the results suggest. He was confident that he could have competed in the end.

    “I even think I could have fought it out for the win with [Lorenzo], seeing the way things turned out,” Dovizioso said. “It was a situation we should have taken advantage of because a lot of riders made mistakes. Luckily I only bruised my buttock, not my pelvis, it hurts a bit but it’s nothing serious.”

    The future Ducati Team mates are able to race and on the climb, and if they can harness the advantages of their new bikes, they can raise eyebrows in Japan and the three following races before heading into the offseason.