By Kropotkin |
After Saturday's race, a few teams stayed on to do some testing on Sunday. Here's the times released:
1. Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna Honda 1min 55.950 secs
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Camel Yamaha Team 1min 56.250 secs
3. Colin Edwards USA Camel Yamaha Team 1min 56.350 secs
4. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team 1min 56.360 secs
5. Sete Gibernau SPA Ducati Marlboro Team 1min 56.610 secs
6. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 1min 56.770 secs
7. Toni Elias SPA Fortuna Honda 1min 56.860 secs
8. James Ellison GBR Tech 3 Yamaha 1min 58.180 secs
It's always hard to judge test times, as often, all that the teams release is the fastest lap time, without talking about whether qualifiers or race tyres were used, compounds or settings. However, a couple of notes on these times:
- Ellison and Melandri were the only riders to improve on the times set during the race weekend. Ellison is obviously still getting to grips with the bike, and showing good progress. Seeing Melandri find just under 0.9 of a second makes me wonder which bike he was out on: the RC211V with all the new parts which he has been riding so far this season, or did he hop back on the 2005 bike?
- Rossi spent some time back on the 2005 Yamaha M1 in an attempt to track down the cause of the chatter which is still plaguing this year's bike. I really hope that they tell us all what the problem was when they find it, because I'm almost dying of curiosity by now.
UPDATE
Testing press releases:
Ducati Press Release
There have been press releases by Honda and Yamaha as well, but to be honest, press releases aren't the fullest and most honest form of communication known to man. I'll try and post links if they post them on their websites.
