Ducati Marlboro, like most of the
MotoGP teams, were left wondering if they'd missed out on an Istanbul test session attended only by Team Gresini after watching Movistar riders
Marco Melandri and Sete Gibernau finish Friday practice on top - and with a 0.7secs advantage over their nearest rival.
"We can jokingly say that we have to find out when the Gresini team came here to test, as they are so fast right from the start!" said Ducati MotoGP project manager Livio Suppo. "It is a strange day all round with such a big gap between the first two riders and the rest."
For their part, Ducati finished day one with Carlos Checa sixth fastest - 1.6secs from Melandri but only 0.397secs from third placed
Nicky Hayden.
"Today we went to the new track for the first time, and it is a nice venue, technical and difficult," said Checa. "It is fun to ride. We began to work on the set up of the bike to adapt it as soon as possible. We tested a variety of
Bridgestone tyres and in the end we found a good compromise, especially regarding the back tyre.
"That allowed me to be faster at the end. We are still missing something in some points, but tomorrow we will test more front tyres to see if they will allow me to take the corners faster. So far, I am pretty satisfied with the rear tyre and I will make a long distance test tomorrow."
Riding in place of the injured
Loris Capirossi this weekend is test rider Shinichi Itoh, who began his first MotoGP race weekend for Ducati with the 16th fastest time.
"I did not push too much today as it is my first time at this track," said Itoh, "but it's the same for everybody. The bike feels a bit different from the one I normally use in testing, so I spent most of my time trying to get a balance for the bike and working with the tyres.
"This track is also quite difficult, because there are so many different corners, so I need to learn it a bit more. There are some slower sections and then some much faster corners."
