Dovizioso had arrived at his conclusion after studying data from the day before, after admitting that the cowled bikes were faster on corner entry. It was a matter of compromise, he said.
“At this track, the new fairing works well, but it’s just about positive and negative things.
“Sometimes I followed other Ducatis, and they were faster in some sections but I was faster in other places. I think I’m quite good now at getting the maximum from the old fairing.”
His advantage would be in top speed and fuel consumption … born out in that he was not just the fastest through the speed gun in qualifying, at 296.0 km/h against 294.5 for Pedrosa’s Honda; but faster than bewinged team-mate Lorenzo, at 292.5.
Rossi Back For Aragon?
Valentino Rossi could be back on track for the next round in a fortnight at Aragon, but more likely at Motegi three weeks later, missing only two GPs, according to a pledge he made in an interview for the Dorna web-site.
The injured 38-year-old looked pale but determinedly cheerful in the short clip, in which he repeated how he had lost the steering after hitting a rock, put his foot down to avoid crashing, but the weight of the bike had given him a double fracture.
He was on a cross-country ride with friends, “in the hills behind Urbino”, on a route he has been riding for 20 years.
Rossi was shown wearing a surgical stocking on his right leg, but no plaster cast, with his crutches, kept well off camera.
“At this point of recovery you must live day by day,” he said. “Aragon will be very, very hard. Last time I came back after 40 days. This time the fracture is better … less painful. But it is very early to say.
“If I am not able to come back for Aragon, I will try for Motegi.”
Practice for Aragon begins 21 days after his crash and surgery that night; for Motegi, it is 42 days.
Rossi also said he would have to find “another way” to train, after two off-road injuries this season.
“We are motorcycle riders,” he said; “and the best training is to ride motorcycles, but sometimes this can be dangerous. Unfortunately this year it happened two times to me, so we need to make in another way.”
Yamaha racing chief Lin Jarvis would not be drawn on who would replace Rossi at Aragon, should he not be fit to ride himself … the team is obliged by the rules to field a replacement after a ten-day period of grace.
There were four candidates, he said: both of Yamaha’s official test riders, Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Kouta Nozane, and both SBK riders, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark. As reported yesterday, the last-named is the odds-on favorite