Ahead of the next World Superbike Championship, Ducati is looking forward to a strong fight at their home ground.
Ducati probably hoped to make a better appearance on their lands. They Ducati could only notice the gap separating them from Kawasaki team in the first day of testing at the Misano circuit.
Already third and fourth at the end of the first free practice session, Ducati’s riders Marco Melandiri and Chaz Davies failed to improve their respective benchmarks while in the meantime their counterparts Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes were already doing a pretty good duel for the head of the hierarchy.
In this duel, Davies remained a simple spectator, being made ahead, once is not customary, by his team-mate who evolves this weekend at Misano circuit.
“I’m confident it’s always a plus to finish the first day in the top three, especially when it comes to your home race,” Davies said.
It should said that Davies is trying to clean two disappointing rallies, the penultimate in Imola, and another track located near his hometown. “The team did a very good job after our last tests here, analysing the data and arriving with settings that worked really well. After two difficult races, it seems that we have managed to put some problems behind us.” Davies added.
It bodes well for the rest of the events, while Marco Melandri has not advanced his team-mate in qualifying since the Thai throne of the calendar, he had beaten Davies in the exercise of the Superpole in the first two events of the championship.
“Now we will try to make further progress, especially in the first area of the track,” Melandri said. “But I want to stay focused on our pace of racing because, under these conditions, regularity will be crucial, and if we can exploit our potential, we can lead a solid race from start to finish.
Marco Melandri feels confident to race in Italia series. (Source:www.balapmotor.net)
Melandri fears that such a run will not happen again this weekend, while he only maintained his fourth place with 17 thousands ahead of Leon Camier in the free practice 2, a situation far from expected, but he says by a lack of adhesion linked to the conditions of track.
“Today was a bit more difficult than expected,” Melandri said. “I still do not feel totally comfortable on the bike, we need to work on the set-up. In the tests we did here a few weeks ago, we were a bit more competitive, but the conditions were different more hot and wet, and we had trouble making good lap times.” the Welshman added.
