The first day of official MotoGP testing at Phillip Island in Australia ended shortly before six o’clock today. At the end of the session, which was held in hot and sunny weather but with an increasingly strong wind during the afternoon, the two Ducati Team riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo were classified respectively in eighth and eleventh place.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 64 laps – 1’30.410 (8th)

“Today we concentrated on doing some tests with the chassis because we had to define several aspects, and we used up the entire day for this work. The feeling is quite good, but here at Phillip Island you feel the difference between lapping with the wings and without more than in Malaysia. We still have to improve the bike’s balance and set-up, and that’s scheduled for tomorrow, so then we’ll see what sort of times we can lap in, as everyone will surely make a further step forward.”

Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 61 laps – 1’30.631 (11th)

“The tests here at Phillip Island have begun a lot better than in Sepang, and today we used the same base set-up that we had established at the end of the test in Malaysia. It was a shame that during the last one and a half hours we were unable to improve our lap times while other riders did. We struggled to lower our times because of the strong wind and in addition the last rear tyre we fitted didn’t have the same sort of performance that we had expected. In any case it’s positive the fact that every day we are accumulating new information and that we are always making small steps forward.”