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| Valentino Rossi fit for Phillip Island despite test absence |
The
32-year-old was due to ride Ducati’s GP12 in Spain but had to withdraw
with a left hand injury picked up when he crashed out on the first lap
of last Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix at the Twin Ring Motegi.
The
worst of the damage is on Rossi’s left little finger and it is painful
enough for the nine-times world champion to have to miss today’s GP12
test.
Ducati though insist that he will be fit to compete in the Phillip Island race on October 16.
As
a result, American team-mate Nicky Hayden spent less than a day at home
in Kentucky after the long flight from Tokyo before he was back in the
air to Europe to take part in the test.
Hayden
wasn’t expecting to evaluate Ducati’s new aluminium frame concept until
the traditional post race test at the Valencia circuit next month.
Rossi
is understood to have tried a full twin spar aluminium frame last month
in Jerez and it is not clear whether Hayden will test the same chassis
Rossi has been using, or whether he will get to assess a further
evolution. A further evolution of the frame, which was built by
British-based FTR, is the most likely scenario given Ducati wants to
have the final spec of its 2012 MotoGP ready in time for Rossi and
Hayden to test in Valencia next month.
Ducati
and Rossi have denied testing or readying a full twin spar aluminium
frame for the track. Team boss Vittoriano Guareschi told MCN that the
chassis Rossi used in Jerez last month was a modified version of the
frame he’s currently racing, with different stiffness to try and improve
a lack of front-end feeling and understeer.
He
told MCN: "We tried one evolution of the current frame and in this
moment this is not the last solution. We want to understand what we need
and maybe the last solution is possible to see in Valencia, and maybe
this is not the finished solution. The shape of the frame is a little
bit different but not like a deltabox."
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