After a day of successful testing at Jerez with Franco Battaini and Vittoriano Guareschi on the GP12, official word has come down from Ducati Corse high command that Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will swing a leg over the new 1,000cc machine tomorrow and Saturday, respectively. Valentino Rossi has presumably already made the trek back to Spain this evening, and will test the Ducati Desmosedici GP12 tomorrow, while Nicky Hayden will return his press junkets from Germany, and have his turn on the GP12 this Saturday.
While Ducati is still wrestling with the gremlins lurking in the GP11, Ducati Corse clearly has its eyes on the 2012 and the return to the larger displacement format. On-hand for the coming test days at Jerez will be the full Ducati Test Team, the race team’s mechanics and engineers, and of course Technical Director Filippo Preziosoi.
Jerez will be our first glimpse at the next generation of MotoGP race machines, but both Yamaha and Honda are expected to begin testing their machines soon as well. An official test for the 2012 bikes is scheduled right after the Italian GP at Mugello, but we could one or both of those machines before then, as Race Direction has clearly given the nod to the OEMs that they can have extra testing sessions for next year beyond what’s already been scheduled.
Stay tuned tomorrow as we’ll be updating the site as we get more information on Rossi’s introduction to the GP12.
Source: Ducati Corse
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