Filippo Preziosi may be publicaly defending Valentino Rossi’s talent, but during tonight’s qualifying session in Qatar, the former World Champion completely lost his way and also lost a number of fans who are no longer blaming the Ducati for his performance, but putting the blame squarely on The Doctor’s skinny back. They found his performance highly embarassing for a rider of his caliber and undefendable, especially after seeing Nicky Hayden take fifth on the same bike and every other Ducati rider qualify ahead of him.

In 12th and one second from Hayden and two seconds from Jorge Lorenzo and just eight tenths faster than Colin Edwars, has left Rossi’s confidence and motivation in tatters and tomorrow if his team doesn’t find the proverbial rabbit in the hat -that is checking out his team mate’ss data- he’s going to be battling with some highly motivated CRT riders who are going to try take him on, which could turn out to be blood bath not only on track, but also in Borgo Panigale.

“Our goal tonight was to be in the top five, and I’m pleased that we achieved that. I did a 56.1 on a hard tyre and to be honest, I thought maybe I could do something really special with the soft, but all things considered, I think we did decently in our first qualifying session. We’ll see if we can come here and turn it into a result tomorrow night. Tyre life is going to be important, and since we’re using up the tyre a lot, we need to work on that. I still struggled a bit with chatter and understeer, especially in the fourth sector, where the corners are flat, but the GP12 is certainly the fastest Ducati I’ve ever ridden, which could come in handy in the race. I think it will be a hard race, but I’m really looking forward to it. There’s a big gap to the top two, but we’ll try our best to get a good start, get into that second group and fight like dogs to hold on. Hopefully we can leave here with something positive,” said Hayden.

A depressed and confused Rossi said, “Yesterday was nothing fantastic but a lot better, especially with the used tyre, so my goal was to qualify on the second row. I’m very far from that target though, as the problems that we had before were worse. It’s very strange because we only made some small changes from yesterday, but the feeling was very different. After that we returned to yesterday’s setting and I went a little bit faster, but it wasn’t enough to significantly improve the result. I’m not sure what to expect for the race, but obviously, I hope to do better. Nicky made a different setup choice than ours and did a good session with both tyres, so now we’ll also look at his data and try to do better.”

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Former 1981 World Champion Marco Lucchinelli has known Valentino Rossi since he was in diapers and nicknamed him ‘virus’ because he was always bothering everyone in the paddock and asking a million questions. Tonight Lucchinelli was co-hosting the Qatar commentary on Italia 2 and when he saw that Hector Barbera on the Valencia spec version of GP12 that Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden had discarded was faster the both the factory riders, he said that it is now time to harshly criticize the Italian so he gets hopping mad and starts pushing or he should leave.

Even if Rossi ended up behind both Barbera and his team mate, he ironically commented that the race is on Sunday and even if Barbera is riding well he probably posted that time by taking a tow (he did).

Nicky Hayden encountered chatter issues that left him in 7th: “As the track is cleaning up, we’re getting more grip, but in a way that’s hurting us since I’m also getting more chatter. When that happens, I can’t keep my lean angle, and I run wide, especially in the flat corners. We tried some different springs but haven’t found the right solution yet. Chatter is so strange and inconsistent sometimes, but we’ll have a look at the data and do our best to sort it out. My pace isn’t great, but although I’m not thrilled with how the day went, the bike is certainly doing well on top speed, which is going to be important in the race.”

Valentino Rossi isn’t even thinking of qualifying on the front row tomorrow evening, second row is the best he can hope for with the understeer problems that is his greatest issue at the moment (we’d say that it’s the gap):

“Today went pretty well, and I’d say that the last session was the best. The position is nothing fantastic, but on the positive side, I’m very consistent with the hard tyre. The front of the bike is giving more feedback, so I can push more, which is very important, and the bike is very fast at the end of the straight. The understeer is still there, but now I think we have a place from which to work. We hope to improve two or three small things with the setting for tomorrow, and we’ll try to qualify on the second row.”

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Before heading to Qatar, Valentino Rossi to the Italian press he would start chasing lap times and pushing the Desmosedici to the limit, instead he did the exact opposite in the first free practice at Losail.

The Italian decided to stay with one set of hard tires all through the session and worked on race pace that left him down in 10th and more than 1.4 seconds from the top of the timesheets, while team mate Nicky Hayden used a soft tire for his final lap that gave him the third spot on the provisional grid and one second faster than Rossi.

Rossi is still using the understeer complaint that worsens when the tires lose their grip and makes cornering more difficult, while Hayden seems much more content of his GP12.

“The first session went well. This track is a lot different than what we experienced in Jerez, more open and a lot wider,” said Hayden. “It was quite dirty and not very grippy, which helped us a bit. We started off on the hard tyre and then switched to the soft for the last exit, and I was able to do a nice lap. In general we were pretty fast and consistent, and I’ve certainly had worse sessions here, but we’ll just stay calm, keep trying to improve and try to get a good grid spot on Saturday night. It’s just one session, and there’s a long way to go. Sunday night is what counts, and it would be nice to get this team a result it deserves.”

“It’s the first practice and I used the hard tyre the whole session, trying to do a lot of laps in order to understand it. The new tyre is much better for warming up, so good for safety, but it started to slide a lot after some laps and made some of the understeer worse. We have to work with the setting and also the electronics. The soft will be important for Saturday, but the hard will be the tyre for the race. Tomorrow we’ll try to do better, “ said Rossi who put in the most laps during the session and along with Pedrosa the most consecutive number of laps.

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Valentino Rossi ended the final day of testing at Jerez a little more relaxed after having taken the sixth spot on the final day of testing at Jerez and managing to shave off more than eight tenths of second from his lap time to finish 0.935s from Casey Stoner in the final hour of the day.

However the former World Champion who hasn’t won a race since his controversial move to Ducati in 2011 isn’t holding his breath - and neither are we - that in Qatar he’ll be able to futher cut that gap and he’ll end up battling with the middle of the pack, which currently seems to be his potential.

The Italian admitted he still had understeer problems remarking that “it is something in the bike’s DNA” but the front end woes he’s experiencing were a little less intense when they returned to the Sepang 1 set-up and he “trusted” the bike a little more which allowed him to ride like he wants to.

“I am happy because it is a sixth place and this is our potential now. We can squeeze the potential of the bike and Rossi and Ducati are here. For me this is the more real test and we will work in the season for improve. For me, for the podium, Stoner and Lorenzo and Pedrosa are a lot faster than us but it depends also track by track what is our potential. Today went much better than Friday, and I’m pleased… we’re pleased. Unfortunately, we made some mistakes at Sepang II chasing a bad setup, and we paid for that a bit on Friday because we started from that base.”

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi returns to old set-up and saves face with 6th place at Jerez

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The MotoGP riders didn’t have much to say about today’s test at Jerez as the rain hindered much of the riding, but Nicky Hayden was happy to have topped the timesheets for once, even though it was on his last flying lap when the track was practically dry.

Hayden mentioned that his GP12 seems to go better in the dry than in the wet, just the opposite of the GP11 and its multitude of versions, and on his 1000cc he’s having trouble in acceleration especially on the exit of the longer corners that doesn’t give him enough traction and stability.

“It’s a shame about the weather because I’d like to take advantage of as much time as possible to work on the bike, since I lost so much time in the past few months,” said Hayden. “That’s how it was today though, and it does no good to complain, especially since I had the chance to try the GP12 in the rain for the first time, improving my feeling little by little. We took a long break when the track started to dry out, and we put on the slicks at the end, even though there were still some wet patches out there. I was able to do a couple exits to try the two little changes that we’d planned yesterday. Considering that the conditions weren’t perfect, it’s positive that we quickly come close to my best time from yesterday. Now we hope the weather will let us work well tomorrow, because we’d like to improve some details before Qatar, especially with traction in the fast corners.”

Valentino Rossi finished the finished the day in 19th and having rode all his 18 laps in the rain. Today’s weather didn’t help the Ducati factory rider who seems to be exactly in the same position as last year even with a brand new bike - unable to sort out front end woes and and complaining of an uncomfortable riding position.

“I’m sorry too have lost practically the entire day of testing, even if we still did three exits with wet tyres and a wet setup, to confirm the feelings we had in similar conditions at the last test. Otherwise, there’s not much to say. We couldn’t work well today, but the forecast for tomorrow is better, so we hope to be able to continue working on the setup that we identified at the end of the day yesterday,” commented Valentino Rossi.

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As expected rain and wind hampered today’s second day of MotoGP testing at Jerez de la Frontera. In the first hour of the morning session from 10am to 11am and when it was still dry, Avintia CRT rider Ivan Silva and Ducati’s test rider Franco Battaini were the only ones to record lap times, while everyone else remained in the garages venturing out once in while to check the dark and cloudy skies over the Spanish circuit.

Silva’s best lap remained on top of the timesheets almost until the end of the session when there was a flurry of last minute activity in the final half hour when the track was almost completely dry, which saw Nicky Hayden prevail as the chequered flag was waved. Hayden’s final flying lap was in 1.40.775, followed by Karel Abraham who was 0,906 from the factory Ducati rider, with Ben Spies taking the third spot.

The best rider under the rain wasn’t the usual wet weather specialist, but Dani Pedrosa. The Repsol Honda rider was the first to brave the blustery weather conditions doing long runs and posted a best time of of 1′49.822. The other riders started out their wasted day by middle afternoon on full wet tires, but Pedrosa’s best time remained unchallenged even though Jorge Lorenzo was just 0.266 adrift in second. Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow followed the two ‘aliens’ in third, but was more than 1.3s adrift.

According to tomorrow’s local weather forecast, the final day of testing should be cloudy, but dry.

MotoGP Jerez Day 2 results after the jump.

Continue reading: Wind and rain hampers MotoGP Day 2 testing at Jerez

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Valentino Rossi didn’t expect to arrive at Jerez and be immediately on top of the timesheets, but at the end of the day and after 69 laps he did expect to be a lot closer to the front than in 9th and a massive 1.774 seconds from Casey Stoner and shamefully tailed by a MotoGP rookie and a very impressive Randy de Puniet on a CRT bike.

Rossi is lamenting corner entry problems and an uncomfortable riding position (shades of 2011!), while team mate Nicky Hayden was more or less satisfied with his 6th spot, but not with the gap that separates him from the top of the chart.

“After missing the test at Valencia and having to do damage control in Malaysia, where I wasn’t strong, especially at the first test, it was nice to be able to get back on the bike today and feel close to 100 per cent physically,” said Hayden. “I felt good here and I was able to ride all day and finish sixth, which isn’t bad even if the gap is obviously still too big. We got off to a nice start, but we didn’t improve enough, while the guys ahead of us continued to make progress. It’s a little frustrating, although we gathered a lot of data by being able to ride all day without trying a million different things, and we have some good ideas for tomorrow. Of course our goal is to get closer to the leaders, especially with the lap time.”

“We solved some things today, but not one important thing, which is corner entry, especially in the fastest part of the turn,” complained Rossi. “I’m not able to be incisive there, and it’s where most of our gap comes from. I can’t load the front enough to enter fast, so I don’t carry enough speed through the corner, and that’s why we’re far from the front. We found a more promising setting toward the end and I was able to repeat my fast time with a tyre that was very used, but it was already 5:30 and the temperature had dropped, so we decided to start working on it again tomorrow because we think there’s a margin. Nicky went better today, and we also have to reduce the gap.”

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Following all the hype regarding the presentation of Ducati’s GP12s new livery, 96,000 people according to Ducati’s president Gabriele Del Torchio ended up watching today’s live presentation on TIM’s Facebook page of the Desmosedici GP12 from the Ducati Auditorium at Borgo Panigale.

The event was hosted by Valerio Staffelli, a well know Italian satiric TV reporter and we have for you the first pics of the new and much more sobre tricolore livery on Valentino Rossi’s and Nicky Hayden’s bikes taken for us by our Italian cousin Motoblog.it.

Check back with us later to see the official pics and maybe Ducati and Tim will also release a video of the Q&A session translated to English.

Continue reading: Ducati reveals GP12 livery online

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To build up a little hype ahead of the official unveiling of the Ducati Desmosedici GP12 that will take place online on March 19th at 1pm (CET) on sponsor Tim’s Facebook page from Ducati’s Auditorium at Borgo Panigale, the Italian manufacturer has released this teaser video of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden in action during one of the recent tests.

To accompany the event Ducati and Tim will also be auctioning off the front cowlings of Rossi’s and Hayden’s GP11s on Ebay from March 8th to 15th, with proceeds going to Dynamo Camp charity, which is part of Hole in the Wall Camps founded by Paul Newman in 1988 and helps children with serious and chronic diseases, and the top bidders will be announced by the two Ducati riders during the event.

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Since Ducati didn’t reveal Valentino Rossi’s and Nicky Hayden’s Desmosedici GP12 during this year’s Wroom event at Madonna di Campiglio, they’ll be doing the official presentation online March 19th at 1.00pm (CET).

The live presentation will be available directly from the Facebook.com/TimOfficialPage, (Tim is one of Ducati’s sponsors) and the 2012 racing livery will also be revealed

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Ending up 10th and behind two satellite Yamaha riders, satellite Ducati rider Hector Barbera on the GP12 Zero and and two satellite Honda riders including a rookie is not what Valentino Rossi expected in this final day of testing at Sepang.

Despite a small improvement the Ducati rider was still one full second slower than the Honda machines and despite set-up being slightly easier than last year, the Doctor is still unable to find that important step forward and shorten the gap that separates him from the Honda and Yamaha machines. and if he doesn’t find that something special at the next official test session at Jerez later this month, his 2012 season is going to be a repeat of last year’s, a nightmare, and there will be no excuses this time.

Valentino Rossi - 2:01.550 (57 laps)

“One small positive note to the day is that we reduced the gap to the front a little bit. It was 1.2 seconds, and now it’s 1 second. It’s also nice that the new electronics work well, but it hurts being down on the timesheets compared to all the others. We tried a bunch of things in order to take a step forward from the first test, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to do it and were actually worse. It was harder for me to ride well compared to three weeks ago, especially my corner speed. It’s true that this test was more difficult in terms of weather and track conditions, but it seemed to affect us more than the others. Honestly, I expected to do better than tenth. We were also unfortunate because at the best part of the day, when I did a 2:01.5 and we had some tyres to try to lower the time further, we had a problem with the fork that cost us some time. Maybe without that we would have cut another three or four tenths and been further up, but our pace is still about seven tenths back. Honestly, that’s not a huge amount, but anyway we’re still behind. We’re not pleased with how it went this time, but we have to try and work hard and see what happens at Jerez, where the track is very different than this one, with much different weather and temperatures. We’ll see how we do there.”

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi expected to do better at Sepang

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The weather at Sepang has decided to through a wrench into Ducati’s testing plans. With the Desmosedici GP12 being developed almost from scratch in just over a little more than six months, both Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi need to be getting in as many laps as possible to test their bikes to the fullest and try to bridge the large gap that separates them from Yamaha and Honda. Actually the current gap with Yamaha is more or less the same as during the first Sepang test.

Hayden finished fifth in today’s second day of testing and was not a bad 0.463s adrift from Ben Spies, and very wisely decided not risk riding on a full wet track after his recent surgery.

“The weather hasn’t been kind to us. With my condition, maybe I wasn’t going to be able to do many more laps anyway, but we have a lot of stuff to try. It was definitely cooler today, with more rubber on the track, and we went faster. We made a couple of small steps and I would say today was the most competitive I’ve been all year. I like the changes to the electronics, especially at the first touch of the throttle. We talked about going out in the rain, but the risks seemed to outweigh the rewards. I look forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we can put together all the pieces we’ve learned and do some good lap times.”

Continue reading: Sepang weather not kind to Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden

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