By Mike Nicks
Rumours persist in the
MotoGP paddock that former world No 2 Sete Gibernau will return to the grid this year on a Marlboro Ducati GP8 - possibly as soon as the German GP at Sachsenring on July 13.
Gibernau, 35, completed three days of tests in Barcelona earlier this week on the carbon-fibre-framed GP9 prototype, and it is believed that next week he will test the current GP8 machine, that so far only Casey Stoner out of four Ducati riders has proved capable of handling.
"I'm not going to be Melandri's hangman, or anyone's," Gibernau told a radio station in his native Catalunya yesterday, referring to
Marco Melandri's horrific season on the GP8.
But it is hard to imagine that Melandri will last the season on a bike on which he feels no confidence.
Gibernau is most often remembered by fans as the man who crumbled under
Valentino Rossi's pressure, but the fact is that Gibernau would have become a double world champion - he finished runner-up to Rossi in 2003-04 on a
satellite Gresini Honda - if he hadn't happened to come up against possibly the greatest motorcycle racer since the 1960s legend Mike Hailwood.
Gibernau rode for Ducati Marlboro in 2006, but retired with injuries at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, check the performance of the other three Ducati riders -
Toni Elias and
Sylvain Guintoli on the Alice bikes, as well as Melandri - in today's MotoGP race, because each of them has available the modified software that has transformed
Casey Stoner's performance.
The Alice duo have used the software throughout the weekend, but don't expect Stoner-style miracles. They're reporting to their technicians that, for them, it doesn't make a lot of difference.
