The second day of official IRTA testing at Jerez was hampered by bad
weather, with the track drying out only late in the afternoon.
Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), Saturday 26 March 2005 - The second of
three days of IRTA testing at Jerez de la Frontera in Spain was
conditioned by bad weather.
Loris Capirossi completed a few laps in the morning on the wet track,
declaring that he was satisfied with the performance of Bridgestone's
wet weather tyres. Late in the afternoon, when the track conditions were back to normal again, Loris had a mechanical problem on his second bike which forced him into the pits.
"This morning I did a few laps and I was pleased with the performance
of the tyres in the wet" declared Loris. "Then I stopped for a while to
wait for the track to dry. Once it was back to normal, I started to lap
but we had a split in the oil cooler and as Vitto was using my other
bike, I went back into the pits".
Vittoriano Guareschi continued development work with the new engine
braking system, and also took to the track with Capirossi's number 1
bike, which will be equipped tomorrow with the new system that was
tested today by Vitto.
"The weather didn't help us today, but this winter we have been quite
lucky and we were sure to find rain sooner or later!", declared Corrado
Cecchinelli, Ducati Marlboro Team technical director.
"It was useful in any case to see that the Bridgestone rain tyres work
well here. Loris's number 2 bike had a problem with the oil cooler and
it was too late to get him to go back out again."
Tomorrow is the final day of IRTA testing at the Spanish circuit. The
next time the Ducati Marlboro Team will be out on track will be April
10, again at Jerez, for the opening round of the 2005 MotoGP World
Championship.