Backward step for Bayliss

Backward step for Bayliss

Troy Bayliss went backwards rather than forwards on the first day of MotoGP tests at Sepang on Friday, when he ended up one and a half seconds slower than he had been in the January sessions at the same track.

The former World Superbike Champion was unable to find his rhythm and a late afternoon crash did not help matters, but he remains confident his chief mechanic, Santo Mulero, will find solutions to his difficulties with the base set up of the RC211V.

“I’m a bit disappointed, I can’t deny it, because just a couple of weeks ago I left Sepang in good shape, yet today things just didn’t go too well,” said Bayliss, who clocked a best time of 2’04.45 after 59 laps.

“On a positive note, basing things on my experiences at the last test, I know that working with this team we will eventually find the right direction for the set-up, because that’s all that’s missing – the bike is strong and it goes well.

“Today to make matters worse the track was in poor condition, I didn’t have a good feeling and towards the end of the day I crashed as I opened the throttle and was going rather quick. But I’m fine and I have already agreed with Santi Mulero the changes we will make tomorrow.”

Camel Honda team-mate Alex Barros was in a very different mood to Bayliss, having used his vast experience of the RCV to continue where he left off in January. The Brazilian spent his day working on the front forks in combination with new front tyres from Michelin.

“It was really hot today, and humid too, so it was a challenging day from a physical point of view,” said Barros, who was second fastest with a time of 2’02.08 after 68 laps.

“I’m still very satisfied though. We worked in the first part of the morning getting the bike set-up, seeing as a few of the electronic components have changed, but despite the track conditions being really bad, I went quick straight away.

“Obviously we already have a good base and that is really positive. In the afternoon we made some more adjustments to the forks and then I tried three new front tyres from Michelin.

“They are still just prototypes which their engineers made after the work we did three weeks ago, and tomorrow we will try some more, whilst we will also test some rear tyres which I was unable to try out during the last tests.”

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