Rain wipes out final day of testing at Jerez
Bad weather wiped out the final day of a week-long winter testing session for the top Superbike teams at Jerez de la Frontera before the regulation six-week stop. Heavy rain in the morning today forced Ducati Alstare and BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet to wait in vain for the track to dry and they then decided to shut up shop for good.
The track actually remained damp until late afternoon, which meant that BMW riders Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies stayed in the garages, while Ducati Alstare sent out Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini for a couple of laps before calling it a day.
"We certainly hoped to have more dry track time during winter testing" declared Melandri. "Anyhow, we can be happy as we were able to complete our planned programme on Wednesday and Thursday. I started working with the 17-inch tyres on the 2012 bike then once I was happy with the settings, we went on to test different 2013 parts. We clearly have an idea of which way to go, as we understand exactly what we need to do. I am looking forward to the winter break now, as I need some rest before I start working out in the gym again and preparing for 2013."
"I'm going on holiday in quite a relaxed mood", said Checa. "In the afternoon I did a couple of laps even though the track was still quite damp, but in any case it was a very positive test. We came to some good conclusions, and found out where the bike still needs work. This time round I managed to get my sensations across, now it's up to the engineers."
After the testing ban concludes on 15 January 2013, Ducati Alstare will be one of the first teams back on track with a session at Jerez at the end of January.
The 2013 edition of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship gets underway on 24 February 2013 at Phillip Island (Australia), while Jerez is the venue for the final round of the series on 20 October.
