From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

DUCATI CORSE PRESS INFORMATION
Phillip Island (Australia)
Thursday 19 December 2002

DAY 2 OF DUCATI MOTOGP TESTING IN AUSTRALIA

The second day of testing for the Ducati MotoGP team at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia saw Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss continue development work on the new Ducati Desmosedici. Phillip Island is the first non-European track used for testing by Ducati since development of the Desmosedici got underway.

Testing conditions remained good for the second day (air 25°C / track 40°C) despite strong headwinds along the main straight.

The Italian rider completed a total of 78 laps, using exclusively race tyres. Loris tested a new fuel tank, which helped improve the feeling with his braking and with the front, as well as continuing tests on different rear suspension components. His best time was 1:32.3.

Troy Bayliss also had a positive day’s testing on his home track, completing 89 laps. The Australian tried out the different fuel tanks and carried out a series of tests with different frames. Bayliss also lapped on race tyres and his best time was 1:32.4.

Both riders used the ‘Four Pulse’ engine and worked on different power delivery configurations.

Corrado Cecchinelli, track technical director, declared: “We are really pleased with the work carried out today. We have a lot of different things to test in this development phase and both riders are making a major contribution. They are proving to be excellent ‘test riders’ and are capable of providing us with all the information we need to transform their requests into better lap times.”

Tomorrow, Friday, will see the third and final day of testing at Phillip Island.