| Official MotoGP testing comes to an end at Jerez de la Frontera, with Danilo Petrucci fifth and Andrea Dovizioso eighth on second and final day. Álvaro Bautista also on track with the Ducati Test Team’s Desmosedici GP |
With the second and final day of official MotoGP testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in southern Spain, track activity for teams and riders in 2018 has now drawn to a close.
After a two-month winter break, the MotoGP teams will meet up again at the start of next year in Malaysia, where the traditional first official session of 2019 will be held from 6th to 8th February with three days of testing scheduled at the Sepang circuit.
The two factory Ducati Team riders were once again able to make the most of a pleasant day to bring an end to the development work on the 2019 version of the Desmosedici GP.
Danilo Petrucci completed 68 laps, the best of which was 1’38.109, and he finished the session in fifth place, while Andrea Dovizioso (44 laps today) ended up in eighth place with a lap time of 1’38.292.
Álvaro Bautista was also present with the Ducati Test Team’s Desmosedici GP. The Spanish rider, who will be out on track again tomorrow for one more day of Superbike testing with the Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team’s Panigale V4R machine, put in a total of 65 laps, setting a best time of 1’39.338.
Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Team #9) - 5th - 1’38.109 (68 laps)
“After four days of testing at Valencia and Jerez, I’m very happy with the work that we have done. We tested many different solutions but my feeling with the bike has always been good and so I’m satisfied. For me this is the first time in a factory team, with a new way of working, but I’m really very happy with the atmosphere I found in the box. In these days we’ve collected a lot of important data to work with over the winter and develop the best solutions for next year.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) - 8th - 1’38.292 (44 laps)
“Luckily I’m OK physically and I didn’t have any problems with my hand, so we were able to carry out all the work programme, which was very important to develop the last aspects of the new material before the winter break. I’m pleased because we were able to understand the differences between the various solutions better than yesterday and we have ended these last two tests of 2018 at Valencia and Jerez with some good feedback. For the first time we have managed to put the 2019-spec bike on track in these end-of-year tests, and for us that’s a very important step forward: our speed is good and I’m very happy with the work we’ve done.”
Álvaro Bautista (Ducati Test Team #19) - 16th - 1’39.338 (65 laps)
“Also today we tried a lot of different solutions and did a lot of laps as well as managing to complete the work schedule we had planned without any setbacks. This is always important to collect all the data necessary to develop the bike for next year. On my side I’m grateful to Ducati for the trust they’ve put in me and from tomorrow onwards I’ll be concentrating once again on Superbike, which is my new objective and which is a project that means a lot to me.”
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