Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi will completely change the balance of his Demsosedici GP11.1 after two MotoGP free practice sessions at Indianapolis saw him only able to muster an 11th place on the timesheets, almost a second slower than team-mate Nicky Hayden.
On a slippery track this morning, Rossi was close to the pace in sixth but likened the circuit to riding in the rain. As it rubbered up, however, Rossi increased his pace but not as much as the rest of the field. Old enemy Casey Stoner lapped nearly 1.7s faster than the nine-time champion.
"This morning the track conditions were really critical. There was no grip, and it seemed like we were riding in the wet. Things improved a lot in the afternoon though, which is a sign that the asphalt is good and that it was just very dirty since it hadn’t been ridden on yet," said The Doctor.
"It’s also a good sign for tomorrow because the conditions should continue to improve. Also, there are fewer bumps, so they did a good job. As for us, we didn’t expect the grip to improve so much this afternoon and we had to chase a setup the whole session, as I really couldn’t feel the bike. Tomorrow we’ll completely change the balance.
"Nicky didn’t go bad, so we’ll try to improve as well: the step forward that we made at Brno is still there. We just tried a set up a little too strange since we didn’t expect the conditions to change so much from one session to the next.”
