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Gibernau piles on more Ducati miles |
Sete Gibernau has completed his third outing with the Ducati team after two days of testing at Mugello circuit alongside regular testers Vittoriano Guareschi and Niccoló Canepa.
Although it remains unknown how close Gibernau is to making a comeback to the MotoGP paddock, potentially as a replacement for the underperforming Marco Melandri, the Spanish rider continued to pile the miles on around the Italian circuit.
Testing both the race and qualifying tyre, Gibernau produced a best lap of 1min 48.9secs, whilst averaging around 1min 50.5secs on the more durable race tyre. For reference, Valentino Rossi's 2008 pole position time was 1min 48.1secs, with Gibernau's lap placing him eighth on the grid.
Although he suffered a crash in the latter stages of the test, Gibernau was pleased to have completed two days of largely trouble free running.
“It has been great trying again a qualifying tyres after almost two years,” said Gibernau, “But the most important thing is that the feeling with the bike in race trim was perfect almost straight away. Despite the crash it has been a very positive test. I wish to thank again Ducati for the chance of riding again the MotoGP.
“We will see together whether and how there will be the chance to continue our cooperation. Today I have experienced again the thrill of a crash and I'm fine. I have decided together with Filippo not to ride tomorrow just because we are satisfied already with the good job we did in two days.”
“A special thanks again to Sete who was as usual very helpful,” added Filippo Preziosi. “I have been impressed with him getting on pace straight away and lapping on very interesting times both with race and qualifying tyres. We are evaluating together the chance to co-operate again and I hope we will be able to find an option interesting for everybody.”
