Ducati Monza test notes 2009-04-10

HAGA AND FABRIZIO (DUCATI XEROX) UP THE PACE AS THEY CONCLUDE TESTING AT MONZA

Monza (Italy), Friday 10th April: the official Ducati Xerox squad concluded a two-day test session today at the historic Monza track. Yesterday, factory riders Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga registered respectively the quickest and second-quickest lap times of the day and once again today both were on the pace right from the start of the session.

Under clear skies, both Noriyuki and Michel lapped relentlessly on their Ducati 1198 factory bikes, to clock up more than 70 laps each. Michel recorded a fast lap of 1m45.1s on a qualifying tyre (1m45.6s on a race tyre) while Noriyuki's fastest lap time was a 1m45.5s on a race tyre; on that tyre only the American Spies on board his Yamaha R1 was able to lap faster than the two men in red.

The Ducati Xerox team will be back at Monza in May for the fifth round of the World Superbike Championship but in the meantime the riders and their technicians turn their attentions to the upcoming round, to take place at Assen on Sunday 26th April.

Noriyuki Haga
"Basically my performance was similar to that of yesterday, no better, no worse. We tried yet another suspension setting but didn't really find any improvement over what we had tried until now. However I am happy with my times, happy with my bike and happy with the tyres we have tried during these two days. So we hope that everything goes well for the race too but the problem is that the race is never the same as testing and many factors can change! Before we come back to Monza, we have Assen of course and I'm really looking forward to riding the 1198 there, it should be an interesting weekend."

Michel Fabrizio
"These two days have been very useful. Today, like yesterday, we have worked hard and everything has gone very well. I completed somewhere around seventy laps and the times were fast; we have a good race pace and nearly all of the tyre solutions provided here by Pirelli allowed us to lap with quick times, I just hope that is the case for the race too in a few weeks time! With regard to Assen, I'm feeling fairly confident. This season it is hard to predict how each race weekend will go but we're feeling prepared."

-credit: ducati