VOL. 54 ISSUE 7 FEBRUARY 22, 2017 P41
package together now."
Melandri was also pleased
about his returning form.
"I am ready but for sure I need
to learn even more," Melandri
said. "You can always learn
more but all the winter tests we
planned to discover all the bike
setups and so some of them
were working well for me, some
not as good in Portimao, but
now we have a history to under-
stand what we need to do. Here
the biggest step forward was
that I could use the extra grip
Fores (Barni Racing Ducati) to
go from a fifth in testing to his
first win in this category.
It would be a stretch to image
that testing top-six rider Leon
Camier (MV Agusta Reparto
Corse) could win at PI but at a
track that Eugene Laverty won
at with a Suzuki a few years ago,
anything will be possible.
Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee
Aprilia) pushed on to seventh
in the final testing analysis,
and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha
WorldSBK) eighth, the top
Yamaha rider, from Jordi Torres
(Althea Racing BMW) and rookie
Randy Krummenacher (Kawa-
saki Puccetti Racing) completing
the top 10.
Nicky Hayden (Red Bull
Honda World Superbike) left the
test far from impressed.
"This is not the position or the
pace we want to be," the 2006
MotoGP World Champion said
forthrightly. "We can look at the
lap times and see where we are
at. The team had some ideas
after Portimao that they thought
would help but it turns out that it
has not made much of a differ-
ence. We are not as confident
as we want to be.
I am not going to blow smoke
and tell you how we are right
there on the verge of the track
record or podium. We have to
be realistic about the negatives
but find some positives and keep
working."
Gordon Ritchie
(Above) Davies
finished behind
his teammate
Melandri but was
always at the
pointy end of the
field. (Left) That
face says it all.
Hayden wasn't
pleased.
from the new tire."
Right behind a green and
then a red bike was another red
bike, from Chaz Davies (Aruba.
it Ducati WorldSBK) and behind
him the second main green ma-
chine was fourth overall, for Tom
Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team).
Same top machines, different
season so far, but Phillip Island
has a habit of bringing forth tight
races and sometimes unexpect-
ed race results.
Maybe PI's race weekend will
allow first day fastest man Xavi
