[Ducati] 1098 F08 Fastest at Qatar Test

[Veloce916 at aol.com]

Friday Nov 30 2007 
Test 

BAYLISS  (DUCATI XEROX) POWERS THE NEW DUCATI 1098 F08 TO QUICKEST TIME IN 
QATAR TESTING  SESSION 

Losail (Qatar), Friday 30 November: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) made all the  
difference as he powered the new Ducati 1098 F08 to the fastest time on the  
final day of the Qatar winter test session. The Australian, lying third behind 
 the two Yamahas on Wednesday and Thursday, upped the pace on the final day 
and  slipped in one quick lap of 1m58.1s on race tyres to end the test in fine 
style.  New team-mate Michel Fabrizio was exactly a second behind in an 
encouraging  fifth place on his first outing with the factory team. 
Troy Bayliss, 1m58.1s (66 laps) 
"We're making good progress, the last couple of days we've been trying so  
many different things and seeing where we can go with this bike. Sometimes it's  
frustrating because I want to go fast, like everyone else, but when the other 
 guys were going fast we were still on old tyres and working on the settings. 
 After lunch today we found a bit of a way and were happy, so we decided to 
throw  a few tyres at it and the times were coming good. That's the fastest 
I've ever  been round here by about half-a-tenth and I did that time on a 999 
with a  qualifying tyre. I did about ten laps on the same tyre, mostly in the 
mid-58s,  but I had to ride really hard to get those lap times and I'm still not 
so  confident with the back of the bike. But now I can relax knowing we're 
going in  the right direction and enjoy my Christmas until our next test at 
Phillip Island  at the start of January." 
Michel Fabrizio, 1m59.1s (53 laps) 
"This test was my first time with the factory team and I have to say I'm  
really happy with the guys and the way they work. As for the test, I would say  
it went well. Today I did a 59.1s lap and I was looking to go better with the  
best development tyre left for the end, but we had a small problem and I was  
disappointed I couldn't improve my time. I'll leave it to the others to judge 
my  performance but I personally wanted to do more! The 1098 is a fantastic 
bike,  but we've got a long way to go and I still have to get to know it 
better". 
Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Corse Superbike  Project Leader 
"Over the past three days the new 1098 has had its first real outing on the  
track against the others and we're still trying to familiarize with it. The 
bike  is competitive, but it's not as if we went that much quicker than the 
others.  We're still in the early stages and I think that today it was Troy who 
made all  the difference, as so often happens". 
TIMES (provided by Pirelli): 1.  Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m58.1s; 2. Haga 
(Yamaha) 1m58.4s; 3. Corser (Yamaha)  1m58.6s; 4. Checa (Honda) 1m59.0s; 5. Nieto 
(Suzuki) & Fabrizio (Ducati  Xerox) 1m59.1s; 7. Sofuoglu (Honda) 2m00.3s; 8. 
Kagayama (Suzuki) 2m00.9s; 9.  Kiyonari (Honda) 2m01.8s.  




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