The work therefore fell to Badovini and the young Italian was pleased to be able to make the most of the warm and sunny conditions on day one, making good progress on track and gaining confidence with his 1199 Panigale. The morning of day two however brought a highside at turn 9 that signaled the end of his test session. Worried about a possible broken rib Ayrton was taken to hospital for further checks but fortunately he sustained no serious injuries.
Francis Batta', Team SBK Ducati Alstare Owner: ‘For me,
this is the first real test for the team as a whole - that is all the
mechanics working together - and although the bike is new and very
different to any previous Ducati, I am very happy with how this project
is going. It is a complex project, but a beautiful one and we're all
really looking forward to making it work as well as we can. It is
unfortunate that Carlos couldn't ride at all. He suffered some sort of
stomach problem the day after he arrived in Australia. Possibly it was
something to do with jet-lag, the air-conditioning on the plane and the
change of temperature. He went to hospital, but there are no big
problems and we expect him to be back for the tests next week and then
the race afterwards. Ayrton made a good start. He took things steadily,
but used his head and kept improving. He gave the team a lot of
information, so it was a shame that he crashed and couldn't ride for the
rest of the day. He has also gone to hospital (a different one to
Carlos). We don't think there are any problems but await the hospital's
confirmation. I'm a little frustrated because we couldn't do as much
development work as we wanted, but I I am very happy about how well the
collaboration with Ducati has been going over these days and we're all
looking forward to getting back on track next week.'
The team
hopes for better luck during the official test sessions that will take
place on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 at the same track.