The three-day test session at the Tuscan track of Mugello has concluded in a positive fashion for Sete Gibernau. The Spanish rider has clocked up a great deal of kilometres on track (around 800kms in total) first with the GP9, then with the GP8, finishing with a final exit on the GP9 for a “back to back” comparison. In this, only his second test session after nearly two years away from the tracks, Gibernau has proved that he still has the speed and is also more than competent in providing the Ducati Corse engineers with useful feedback for the development of the Desmosedici. Gibernau made many exits of 4 or 5 laps each and demonstrated a high level of physical fitness, in view of the difficult climatic conditions, with air temperatures of over 30°C and track temperatures exceeding 50°C. Despite this, the Spanish rider kept up an excellent pace, lapping consistently in a low 1:51. Worth a mention too is his fastest lap, made on a race tyre (Sete didn’t test qualifiers), of 1:50.5 on board the GP8, just a few tenths off this year’s race record (belonging to Casey Stoner). “I want to thank not only Ducati but also all the guys that have supported me here,” declared Sete Gibernau. “Some of them worked with me in 2006 and it was great to find ourselves together again. I’ve really enjoyed myself today and have had a completely new experience as a rider. The faster you go, the more obvious it becomes that this bike demands a real physical and mental effort, but when you manage to ride it well, the satisfaction is unique. I hope my work has been of use to Filippo, to help understand the differences between the GP8 and GP9. They are two machines with characteristics typical of Ducati, and the GP9, although new, hows great potential.” “First of all I want to compliment Sete and thank him for the great job he has done here this week,” stated Filippo Preziosi. “It is always a pleasure to work with an experienced rider like Sete and his feedback will undoubtedly help us. His comments are very similar to those made by Casey and Vittoriano and this confirms that we’re proceeding in the right direction. We will evaluate with him whether there can be other opportunities for him to work with us on track with our bikes. He has certainly demonstrated that he’s still able to ride very fast. A special thanks also to the MotoGP team (present at the track were engineer Cristhian Pupulin and chief mechanic Davide Manfredi who work with Melandri, electronics engineer Gabriele Conti and mechanics Roberto Clerici, Andrea Brunetti and Giorgio Casturà from Stoner’s team, and Yoshio Shinke from the Development team) who have, as ever, shown willing by adding these three days of testing to their very busy race calendar. I hope that this result will also spur on Marco and Toni. In the last months we have worked hard to improve the GP8 but I think I can now say that it is a good level and we hope that they too can get the most out of the machine in the coming races.”