As was forecast, the MotoGP teams taking part in the second day of Irta testing at Jerez were hit by persistent rain-showers this morning, only for the skies to clear and the sun to shine from midday onwards. Naturally, with the weather this variable the riders' work was affected badly, most of whom took advantage of the situation to set their bikes up for wet weather racing. However, once the rain stopped the track took a long time to dry out fully, consigning the teams to their pit garages until around five o'clock in the afternoon. Troy Bayliss was, as ever, one of the first to get out on track this morning, and made the most of the conditions to get a feeling for his RC211V in the wet, clocking up around twenty laps and testing several wet weather tyres. Barros meanwhile only rode in the last half-hour, to prepare tomorrow's work and to check track conditions.
Ramon Forcada - Camel Honda - (Alex Barros's crew chief)
"Today was almost completely ruined because the overnight rain continued into this morning and left the track in less than perfect conditions for testing what we had scheduled. We want to try to modify our suspension settings both on the front and the rear, but to get perfect results, the track has to be right. In the last twenty minutes Alex did a dozen laps or so to check the condition of the ashpalt.
Alex Barros - Camel Honda - 1'43.328 (15 laps) 11th fastest
"I went out at the end of the session to check the track and to begin tomorrow's tests. Obviously in fifteen laps we hardly touched on the work we will try to complete during the whole day tomorrow."
Santiago Mulero - Camel Honda (Troy Bayliss's crew chief)
"Troy is such a tireless worker. I think he was about the second rider out there today, and straight away he began to test tyres for Michelin. We were working well and at that point it would have been better if it continued to rain. However, it stopped and we were stopped for a few hours because with the track half-wet and half-dry, it didn't make any sense to ride. In the last hour we did a few laps more, but we focused on completing our work tomorrow."
Troy Bayliss - Camel Honda - 1'43.130 (42 laps) 10th fastest
"When I saw the rain this morning, I said to myself that it wasn't too bad because I would be able to test a little in the wet and if we get rain in two weeks time then the conditions would be quite similar. We did around twenty laps, and both the bike and Michelin's rain tyres went really well. Then it stopped raining however, and we were forced to wait for the track to dry completely. At the end we rode again, but the times weren't too quick, there wasn't great grip from the track."
