Andrea Iannone spoke in glowing terms about the new Ducati GP15 after taking it to the third fastest time on day two of this week’s Sepang test. The Italian was a quarter of a second shy of Marc Marquez having set his best time on the hard tyre but the new machine’s performance over race distances was of even greater encouragement.
“For sure today was a great day. This morning, when we began to lap, I managed to immediately find a better feeling with the GP15 and I am happy that, day after day, doing more and more kilometres with this bike, I can get more feeling. In addition, we managed to improve the bike’s set-up and we were pretty quick. Rather than the time attack I did in the afternoon, I’m happier with the work we carried out throughout the day, because it allowed me to do my time with the hard tyre. The team is working really well, and the bike is improving day after day. It’s improved a lot in the changes in direction and in its nimbleness, it’s quicker between the corners and these are all positive aspects.”
Dovizioso was fractionally slower in fourth and although he was also pleased, he doesn’t quite feel the GP15 quite suits his riding style yet.
“Today was again very good: I’m pleased if I compare my lap times with those of the other riders. But in my opinion, we still need to do a lot of work, in the sense that we are quick but I can’t yet ride the way I want, and my feeling with the front is still not perfect. We are working hard and trying numerous different set-ups to try and understand how this bike is, because it’s very different from the GP14. It’s clear that there is a lot of enthusiasm because the bike has improved, but we still need more time to improve our performance.”
