Rossi: Race set-up 'best', aluminium chatter

Valentino Rossi left Monday's Catalunya test feeling that the set-up he had used to take seventh place in Sunday's race was as good as they could get. Free from the time constraints of a race weekend, the Ducati rider tried various set-up options, but concluded they were no better than the settings he had run in the grand prix. “We didn't have much new stuff, so we concentrated on testing settings, trying many different configurations. In the end we understood that the setup we settled on for yesterday's race was really the best one for this track,” said Rossi. The new aluminum swingarm, which had performed well at Mugello and was used by Rossi for day one in Catalunya, also made a return. “We tried the aluminium swingarm, which could help us in terms of grip on acceleration, but it triggers too much chatter, as opposed to during the Mugello test, where it proved to be advantageous,” said Rossi. “It will be interesting to try it again at Aragon on Wednesday.” Rossi set the eleventh fastest lap time, 1.2sec from Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3). Team-mate Nicky Hayden was a fraction faster than Rossi in tenth place, despite missing out on a late push. “It was definitely nice to get in a good day of testing, even if it was mainly just confirming things like fork settings, geometry and a couple of electronic settings,” said Hayden. “It's a shame we got a red flag at the end of the day because we had one new tyre ready so that we could go out one last time and check to see if we had made any real progress, but that's how it goes. Nonetheless, it was definitely a useful day. “Now we'll move on to Aragon and give it a go there.” Hayden didn't try the aluminum swing-arm during the race weekend having already experienced chatter at Mugello, but both Rossi and Hayden used updated electronics at Catalunya.