Immediately after the Qatar Grand Prix, Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso went to Andalusia to drive very intensely (82 laps for the Spaniard) this Wednesday, after in-house tester Michele Pirro had developed the Desmosedici the day before. Casey Stoner was not present.
While Lorenzo completed its 82 laps, Dovizioso covered 51, which is a lot considering the distance of the race which is traditionally 27 laps, or 119,421 km. Ducati was not particularly comfortable there in 2016, with the fourth fastest time in qualifying for the first Ducati ridden by Dovizioso, behind Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez, but above all 0.8 from pole position, which was a big gap.
In the race, the best Desmosedici finished seventh, driven by Andrea Iannone, 26 seconds behind winner Valentino Rossi. In terms of best lap times, Dovi and The Maniac were seventh and eighth, 0.9 behind Rossi.
It is once again eagle-eyed Giorgio Manziana Mulliri that we owe the discovery, in the background of a photo taken during tests in Jerez and distributed on the Internet by Jorge Lorenzo, what could well be a new version of the future Ducati fairing.
The Italian firm had also made no secret of the fact that it was counting on this test to finalize the first evolution of its 2017 fairing in order to have it approved, and possibly used, at the next Grand Prix in Argentina.
Placed on a table and wrapped in bubble wrap, we can see what really looks like the front of an F1 car from the 80s. Apparently, it appears to be the upper half of a fork crown, which would imply that, at least for these tests, it would now be made up of several removable parts, perhaps to be able to try different models more easily.
We let you consult friend Giorgio's page, with its multiple animations and assumptions…
