From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

DUCATI XEROX TEAM GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS IN SPAIN

Valencia (Spain), Monday 7 February: The Ducati Xerox Team, which was presented to the international press at the Ducati factory in Bologna last Thursday, saw its 2005 World Superbike campaign get off to a wet start on the first day of a two-day testing session in Valencia, Spain.

Rain fell most of the morning at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit and the cold and wet conditions prevented James Toseland and Régis Laconi from putting in much track time on their Ducati 999 F05 factory machines as they start the countdown to the new season, which gets underway in three weeks time in Qatar.

Laconi (45 laps) was the quickest rider throughout the day with a time of 1m41.3s while Toseland (40 laps) recorded a 1m43.6s, but today’s times are not significant due to the poor weather and track conditions.

2004 champion Toseland was slightly disappointed with today’s testing: “We haven’t done many full laps and it’s been a disappointing day because I was looking forward to this last test before going to Qatar,” he declared. “We haven’t been able to do much all day, the track dried up a bit but it was intermediates to slicks and we didn’t get a good run at it today.

“Tomorrow if it’s dry I’ll be OK and will be able to push and do some decent lap times. I just don’t want to go away from this test feeling it’s a bit of a waste of time because of the weather. I feel ready and the bike’s ready but we’ve still got to test everything. It’s just a case of having more time to do some more laps,” concluded Toseland.

Ducati Xerox team-mate Laconi was of the same opinion, the Frenchman commenting: “Today it was really hard out there, the cold and the wet didn’t allow us to conclude much.

“Towards the end of the day we fitted a slick on the rear but the track still had patches of damp all around and it was impossible to push hard. Let’s hope things will improve tomorrow to enable us to leave for Qatar with a better idea of where we are” he added.

Testing at the Spanish track concludes tomorrow, Tuesday.


More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi-NCR:

THE BAD WEATHER HINDERS THE VALENCIA’S SUPERBIKE TEST

The bad weather doesn’t give any respite to the World Superbike teams engaged at Valencia for a two-day test. Cloudy sky, rain showers and a temperature which reached only a maximum of 13°C degrees characterised the debut practice day, vanishing the efforts of the teams here in Spain for the final setting of the bikes at the eve of the 2005 Series debut, scheduled for next February 26, Saturday, on the Losail circuit at Doha, in Qatar.

Fonsi Nieto finally found his season challengers; the Spanishe rider rode a total of 50 laps to improve his 999RS Ducati knowledge, with a better score of 1:43.80, absolutely to appreciate looking at the minimum experience of Fonsi on a four stroke machine.

“I must say once more that’s a bike totally different fron the bike I’m used to.” – said Fonsi Nieto at the end of the day. “This difference is very big, so I drove quiet, without pushing, trying to learn the maximum possible. The bad weather didn’t help us and that it’s really a pity, because the championship debut is very close and I’ve been not able to get any complete test before. But I’m confident because I see the team that works very hard, I found a good feeling with my chief-mechanic Marco Mozzone and all the crew’s guys. Now we must hope in a better weather tomorrow, so could be possible to push, but the weather forecast are not good.”

Many eyes were looking to Lorenzo Lanzi in this test, but an early crash in the morning didn’t allow to complete the test program scheduled for today.

“It’s actually a fantastic debut.” – jokes with a bitter smile Lorenzo Lanzi. “It was the first lap of the day when I’ve lost the front at the first chicane, I’m sure for the cold tyres, and I had a bad shot at the right knee and hip, which now give me some pain. The bike in those weather conditions is good, as we saw during the last test session in December, but now we need to test in dry conditions. Today I’ve been able just to ride for five laps and, of course, it’s impossible to speak about fast laps. I hpe that tomorrow we’ll be able to do something bette.”

Gianluca Nannelli on the 749R Supersport made a great size of test work and at the end of the day look to be quite satisfied about today job: “The team has done a lot on the bike, thank Franco Farnè and the guys, and today finally we could test all the evolution done. I’m very satisfied because the torque problems we found in the past test look to be solved.The engine is more linear with a better power range until the limiter works. So for the engine I must say to be satisfied. Unfortunately in such weather and track conditions is not possible to have any valid information about the suspension setting. I rode a total of 40 laps and the team clocked me a better lap in 1:43.96.”