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Michele Pirro spent his 30th birthday travelling. The Ducati test rider, having competed in the CIV at Mugello (winning the races) and participated in WDW at Misano last week, boarded a plane to Malaysia for a two-day test.
Waiting for him at the Sepang track was ‘his’ Desmosedici. The Malaysian track has just been resurfaced under the supervision of Jarno Zaffelli. The tests are significant ones, both for Ducati and particularly for Michelin that wants to collate as much data as possible before the October GP.
“Unfortunately today was ruined by the fact that it rained a lot overnight and so when we arrived this morning the track was wet - Michele Pirro tells us at the end of the day - The big problem is that in two or three places, the track doesn't dry out easily because water comes out from under the surface, so those areas stayed wet all day practically. This conditioned our tests”.
This is the only flaw that the test rider noted after the resurfacing work. Essentially, the asphalt stays damp because water penetrates from the ground underneath.
“After the rain, the track was very slippery, but the fresh asphalt is good, it's smooth and there are no potholes anymore - he continues - The track is definitely better, they've done a great job, but there was no grip becase the asphalt was dirty and those damp patches prevented me from going fast and taking the right lines. As a result times were slow, I was lapping in around 2’03”.
This didn't stop Pirro from completing around fifty laps, including some lengthy exits during which he worked to understand the behaviour of the Michelin tyres. The tests will continue tomorrow, in hopefully better conditions.
“We hope that it doens't rain tonight so that we have a dry track tomorrow on which to test without any problems”, concludes Michele.
