Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/245323
P28 IN THE WIND The official Ducati squad had Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies out at Portimao, going well enough but losing a lot of what was supposed to be four full days of practice to rain. "It has been really off and on Sunday and I think we had about three, three and a half hours of the dry track time and a little bit the other night," Davies said. "It has not been ideal for much of the test, but it is what it is. We have a lot of things to do on the last day. We are working on all sorts. I think that we want to do a lot more of what they call an ABA test. So we start with what we know, 'A', then put on the new part which is 'B' and then go back to the 'A' part to verify that the new part worked better than the old one." Davide Giugliano would be fastest rider of the two works Ducati men on the final day, ending up fourth fastest behind Jonathan Rea's Honda. The Pata Honda team fielded Rea and Leon Haslam in Portimao, and stayed for two days more than planned due to the poor early weather. After using Honda's GP-inspired electronics system last year, the arrival of new electronics wizard Massimo Neri in the Ten Kate team has brought about a change of plan. The team now uses its own hardware via Cosworth and its own software strategies, completed by Cosworth programming. They also had Michele Magnoni out at Portimao testing, to try out some base electronics before they were passed onto Rea and Haslam. "In the dry we did some work on the chassis to make it turn a bit better and we also spent a lot of time with our new electronics strategies," Rea said. "We have had new software and there were some teething problems, but we are starting to get a handle on things now. I am really proud of the team for taking testing seriously and we have had quite a lot of days now. More than most. The problems we have is that we are coming from being, trying to bridge the gap but for sure we are getting closer." Ten Kate will join the Kawasaki squad for one more test at Jerez, February 5-6, shortly before bikes and parts head to Australia. With Haslam seventh fastest, behind Melandri in fifth and Da- Eugene Laverty seems to be getting comfortable with the Suzuki GSX-R1000. vies in sixth, the first full Evo bike was that of Sylvain Barrier (BMW Italia) the two-time Superstock 1000 champion. With a 1:44 flat he was 1.5 seconds off the best like-for-like World Superbike on his S1000RR, but still half a second off the nearest established World Superbike – the Honda of Haslam. The Yakhnich MV Agusta of Claudio Corti was out at Portimao and set decent lap times on Sunday, in a more race-ready trim than its first (almost Superstock) test at Jerez in late November. It was to be a final 1:44.5 – two seconds off Lowes – for the full World Superbike-spec MV at the busy and challenging Portuguese track. Gordon Ritchie