Ducati riders Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso remain optimistic that the team are moving in the right direction with the GP13 machine. Both riders improved by a second to finish eighth and ninth with Hayden the quicker of the two and the American has promised that he won’t rest until they’re back at the front.
“The good weather helped us to do a full day, and although it wasn’t easy, we did a good step. We tried some things with the fork that really helped smooth out the bumps, and I had improved feeling and much better consistency. Our gap to the front is still big, but we’ll keep pushing and working and trying to reduce that as much as possible. Tomorrow we’ll keep going in the same direction we went today. Hopefully the track will be really good and fast in the morning so that we can get some good work done.”
Dovizioso didn’t quite get as much mileage in as his teammate but feels the team are gradually gaining an understanding of what they need to do to make progress.
“It was a good day because we did our best work so far, in terms of both the quantity of work and the information we obtained. We really tried a lot of things with the setup, making big changes in order to understand the situation. Some of the adjustments improved the feeling, so they enabled me to brake a bit harder. Although the times were nothing special, in my opinion they’re not so bad, even with used tyres. We must continue working as we try to identify what we can do to improve some aspects, but we’re making progress.”
