When Valentino Rossi tested for the third time the new GP12 in the middle of June at the Mugello, he sounded pretty positive saying, “I was already happy with the engine the first time I tried it, and now we’re also making progress with the rest of the bike.
Naturally, we’ll have to see when the others try their 2012 bikes, but as far as we’re concerned, for the moment we’re satisfied; our bike is already good,” Too bad that a little more than three weeks later, the Italian who has been struggling all season long on the red beast, despite a myraid of developments, step 1, step 2, using the 2012 chassis version and in yesterday’s Mugello race changing the weight distribution that enabled him to take sixth, revealed to the Italy’s sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport that his 1000cc bike is slower than the 800’s.
“The truth is that in the tests with the 1000cc I went slower than today’s fastest riders on the 800’s, and this means that there is still a lot of work to be done.
”With Ducati only having three days still available for testing the 1000cc what more can Filippo Preziosi pull out of his hat to satisfy a disgruntled Rossi and make him faster?