After a disappointing race at Assen, Ducati’s factory riders plus Pramac’s Andrea Iannone will be heading to Misano next week for more testing – and once again they’ll be testing and developing the laboratory bike, even if both Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden decided not to use the frame, as promises of a more competitive machine before summer so far haven’t come true.
Unfortunately for the two, the Assen weather decided to veer to sunny and dry to the dismay of Hayden and Dovizioso who were more competitive on a wet track.
Lacking traction the two managed to finish in a 10th and 11th, but the fact that they were passed by MotoGP rookie Bradley Smith – who is still carrying his wrist and finger injuries – on the last lap can’t have made Ducati happy, nor the fact that they finished behind Aleix Espargaro riding an ART bike.
Ducati’s MotoGP Project Director, Paolo Ciabatti, announced today that Ducati is thinking of making a production racer for the 2014 season and take advantage of the non-MSMA rules (CRT) that will allow 24 litres for fuel, 12 engines instead of five and no development freeze and using the GP13 bike – and it would be interesting to know which private teams would choose a currently underperforming GP13 compared to a Honda production racer or a Yamaha engine or even an ART machine.
“Considering the expectations, the race didn’t go so badly.
I followed Nicky for the entire race, and I rode really hard; it was so tough to do that pace here.
The gap is still big, but compared to our gap in practice, we weren’t as far back on lap times.
We pushed hard for the whole race, taking risks to try and catch Espargaro and Bautista.
We were able to do it, but unfortunately we were really at the limit and weren’t able to battle with them.
In the last chicane, I made a pass on Nicky that was on the limit, but I don’t think it was dirty.
That chicane is famous for that, but unfortunately our battle on the brakes made us slow on the exit, and Smith passed us on acceleration.
It’s a shame, but it just shows our difficult situation.
Let’s say we limited the damage somewhat today,” said Dovizioso.
“It’s been a very hard weekend, right from the beginning.
There wasn’t much grip here, which certainly didn’t help us.
We tried hard to make the bike better, but we couldn’t ever really get it working.
It was quite difficult in the race, especially in change of direction.
The bike was moving a lot, and I was pushing the front in a couple of the fast corners.
I was really at the limit, and every time I tried to push a little harder to close the gap, I’d run a bit wide or lose the front.
On the last lap, I didn’t get a good run through turn 15 and Dovi came up the inside and pushed us both wide, so Smith beat us both to the line.
It was a racing move, and anyway, the real problem is we got beat by 33 seconds, which shows how far behind we are,” said Hayden.
If Dovizioso and Hayden were struggling, MotoGP rookie had even more more horrible race as he too finished behind another ART rider, Randy de Puniet.
It was a very difficult day for me.
I never managed to really improve from the first practice sessions this weekend, and I never had a good feeling with the bike.
We’ll keep trying to improve; now we’ll go to Misano for a test, and I’ll certainly focus more on the electronics, as that’s an area where I struggled a lot.
I have to learn to give more precise feedback to my engineers and technicians so that I can have an easier time in the race.
This is a particular track where there’s very little braking, and that doesn’t suit our bike very well, as it’s very physical and quite difficult on corner entry.
We’ll put this behind us and go to the Sachsenring,” said Iannone.
With Michele Pirro doing double duty as a test rider and subsitute rider, the Italian has begun to suffer arm pump and that also hampered his race as he finished 14th behind his temporary team mate.
“I still have to recover.
I started to get arm pump on the second lap, and I had to back off because I couldn’t ride anymore,” said Pirro.
“I tried to continue on without making mistakes, but I’m disappointed because I started pretty well and I certainly could’ve done better.
The bike still isn’t how I’d like it to be, and I really had a hard time riding it.
In the beginning I followed Nicky and Dovi and battled a little with Andrea [Iannone], but then I backed off.
It’s certainly a race to forget, and now we’ll see if we can do better at the Sachsenring.
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