Ducati had a great time on the final day of the 2019 Sepang test. Not only the top 4 positions at the end of the day were taken by Ducati Desmosedici bikes, but Danilo Petrucci also set the world’s fastest lap time at the Malaysian circuit.
Petrucci started the final session of the Sepang test in the morning when the temperature was a bit cooler and provided faster track conditions. He clocked 32 laps of the circuit and set a new unofficial lap record. He posted a phenomenal 1:58.239 lap time and broke the previous record of 1:58.830 set by Jorge Lorenzo a year ago astride his Desmosedici.
Speaking about his performance, the Misson Winnow Ducati team rider, Danilo Petrucci, said, “Today we started off on the right foot: I was supposed to try two ‘time attacks’ but one attempt, done with a medium rear tyre, was enough. When I saw the lap time on the dashboard, I was really happy. After that, we resumed our work on some new items. Unfortunately, however, I crashed while I was trying a new fairing around midday. Given the fact that I was also experiencing some issues with blisters in my hands, we decided to stop a bit ahead of schedule to recover and make sure we’re at our best in the next tests in Qatar. Overall, it’s been a really positive test.”
Andrea Dovizioso was also very quick. He was only 0.299 seconds behind his teammate with 36 laps to his tally. He finished in the 4th position with a personal best lap time of 1:58.538.
“All in all, this test has been positive. It was important to push to the limit again today because we only have another test before the season starts, and we managed to post a competitive time even on a flying lap after being really consistent in yesterday’s race simulation. Also, to see so many Ducati bikes at the front confirms that we have a good base. We also tried a new fairing, with positive feedback. It’s still early to draw conclusions, but I’m happy with the work done here and now we’ll look for more ways to improve ahead of Qatar.”, said Dovizioso.
The strong performances by Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, respectively second and third on Pramac Racing Team’s Desmosedici GP bikes, further underscored Ducati’s overall competitiveness during this test.
