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Pedrosa's time today is slower than Rossi's 2'00.8 on the GP12 last year..which is virtually the same bike as Ducati are running now.

The point is..Two seconds is a long way and seems to be the new buzz phrase for Ducati, where as last year it was usually under a second on race day.

Everybody is looking to see whether Ducati can move away from being a CRT and back towards the satellite prototypes by closing this gap. On the surface, todays times look better but in reality they're not.

If the weather holds you'd expect Pedrosa et al to slice another 1.5sec from todays times by close Thursday.

Will Ducati be able to do that you think?..and keep the gap between 1 and 1.5 sec?

Will Ducati be able to do that you think?..and keep the gap between 1 and 1.5 sec?

I don't know Wosi, In an interview today that MCN haven't reported, Dovi said

"I'm pretty satisfied with today. My feeling with the bike has improved, and now I know it better than I did two weeks ago here at Sepang," Dovizioso said.

"We tried something with the fuel tank and also the weight distribution, [and] the bike improved.

"This is important: to feel something different in a good way, to improve the feeling.

"The lap time is not too bad for the first time; not fast like everybody else but the gap is smaller than the last test.

Nicky Hayden, Ducati, Sepang MotoGP testing, February 2013"I used just one set of tyres, so all things considered, the gap to the top is acceptable."

They seem to think a move in the right direction, albeit a small one, but better than no improvement.  Nothing we haven't heard before obviously but with today's conditions, any times are meaningless, so nothing can be drawn from them. Another 2 days to go yet, weather permitting. Who knows what else they have to try.

We never really know what's going on in testing so until the first qualifying session it's hard to draw any conclusion as to where they are

SM

They have 3 new riders, Hayden is the constant.

They know they have a front end problem. The last rider to try any number of ideas to cure it didn't. So at the close of last season, based on his feedback they still had no solution. So what would you have incorporated into a new 2013 spec bike to remove the understeer when you haven't been able to identify the cause of it?

Or, you could let your 3 new riders try the bike, see what they think and see if they have any ideas as to the cause. At the same time they can try any ideas that have come from the design team and see whether they work, using the 2012 bike as the constant / base setting.

That will provide the basis for a new design for the next bike. They aren't going to win anything this year, so they may as well be patient, take their time and try and make a significant improvement for 2014. Which seems to be what they are doing.
 

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Running around two-and-a-half seconds off last years pole time is going to tell them exactly fk all.

Espargaro did a 2'02.8 and qualified 11th.

I'd like to see them improve but I don't think it's gonna happen as things stand, just because Doviziosi is riding instead of Rossi.

They need revolution NOT evolution..but Gobmeier says different.

Plus ça change

"I'm pretty satisfied with today. My feeling with the bike has improved, and now I know it better than I did two weeks ago here at Sepang," Dovizioso said.