The Ducati Marlboro MotoGP team went for testing at Valencia, as did the two newcomers to the Ducati Alice team, getting out for their first experiences.
Mika Kallio was impressed by the power of the GP9 and set a good first day result at 15th position with the fastest laptime of 1.
34′793.
Niccolo Canepa said: “I already knew the Ducati Desmosedici GP8 but it is the first time that I’ve concentrated on the set up of the bike.
In the last season tests we mainly worked on the tyres and we didn’t have much time to modify the bike.
For this motive I mainly focused on understanding the bike’s reaction at each modification and I am learning a lot.
We have modified the bike many times and we will still have a lot of work to do.
” Niccolo’s best laptime was 1.
34′995, finishing 17th.
Marco Melandri made his debut with his Kawasaki at Valencia, riding the Ninja ZX-RR with Bridgestone tyres and finishing the day 10th.
Team mate John Hopkins said: “The front tyre we were allocated this morning feels identical to the one that Valentino and Casey have been using all year, but we’ve not been able to run on our bike before.
Today we’ve had the chance to make some changes to the overall set-up of the bike, and it looks like we’ve made some real progress.
I’ve now got a much better feeling from the front than I’ve had for some time, and that’s given me back the confidence to push harder in the corners.
”
