Ducati's Valentino Rossi has explained the new chassis and swingarm improvements have finally given him some of the front-end feel he has been searching for over the past 18 months enabling him to get a second-row start at the Misano MotoGP round.
Although he wouldn't go into specifics, The Doctor said he is now able to re-position the front of the bike in a better way to get more weight and therefore load into the front Bridgestone, generating the required feedback to carry corner-entry speed. He finished qualifying three-quarters of a second down on pole man Dani Pedrosa and says he is confident he can stay with the second pack of riders when Pedrosa and Lorenzo clear off.
"First we can modify a lot the position of the front, so the feeling and stability is better. Second, we try to work for improve the rear stability on the entry of the corner where we suffer always and it looks like we improve. But I am sure the other guys tomorrow will do a step, they will go faster from the warm-up so we have to do the same," said The Doctor, speaking to bikesportnews.com.
"The laptime from the test was similar, it was a different condition but the performance was not so bad. I lose in some area compared to the test but I gain in some others. It looks like we suffer in acceleration as I spin too much, so if we able to find some traction we can go a bit faster."
