After their disappointing race in Brno on Sunday, the Rizla Suzuki team took to the track again today, along with the rest of the field for a 0ne day test at the Brno circuit. Loris Capirossi, Ãlvaro Bautista took full advantage of the extra time at the circuit, testing two new types of chassis, new front suspension forks and also a new engine management system.
The team were also joined by Alstare Suzuki World Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli, who was drafted in, in case Bautista was unable to ride, following his misfortune at the weekend. Guintoli was only able to complete 3 runs, to get settings for his riding style, and was due to make a long run in the afternoon. This was thwarted by the rain however, but he was greatful for the experience.
“Although I didn't do too many laps I thoroughly enjoyed my short return to MotoGP. The plan was to test the bike early on to get some data and then do longer runs later on. I managed about 15 minutes in the afternoon and my lap-times were coming down nicely, then it started to rain heavily and that was the end of the day for us. The bike felt very different to my normal Superbike, but I was quickly getting used to the different tyres and way of riding, it didn't feel like I'd been away from MotoGP at all. It has been a good experience to get to know the MotoGP squad in case I am ever asked to test again. I must thank the team for thinking of me and giving me the opportunity. One thing I did learn today though was that Loris and Ãlvaro are quite a bit smaller than me and it was a tight squeeze to fit on the bike, but the engineers did say that if I came back again to test they would sort out a seat to fit me!”
Bautista’s test was short, mainly due to the pain from his accidents at the weekend, and this showed with him finishing 17th on the timesheets. Speaking after the test in a press release, Bautista said, “The test was very short for me, because I felt a lot worse than I did on Sunday during the race. Today we wanted to do a full comparison of two different chassis and we were able to at least do that. I noticed an improvement in the exit of the corner with the new one, the bike had more stability. We still need to test it further and find out what the true potential is, but overall it was a good test and hopefully with what we found we can make a big difference.”
Loris Capirossi had better fortunes than his teammate, with the Italian finishing a well placed 9th on the timesheets, having gained valuable data from all the new parts, “It was a very positive test and we managed to get a lot done. I was able to consistently improve on my qualifying time from Saturday, even with very old tyres, so that was a step in the right direction. We tried a new traction control which also seemed to work well and it will be interesting to see the data from that compared to the one we have been using. Unfortunately it rained in the afternoon as we would have liked a lot more time on the bike to understand more things for the future.”
