Byrne happy with team effort following Portimao third
Added on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor
Byrne happy with team effort following Portimao third
Shane Byrne admitted that it was no easy task to get to grips with his new Althea Ducati despite surprising most with the third fastest time of the weekend in the official test at Portimao.
Byrne, who was without a team following the collapse of the Sterilgarda Ducati team before eventually being picked up by Atlhea, rode his satellite Ducati to a time of 1:42.877 – 0.26 seconds ahead of Michel Fabrizio and more than half a second faster than last year’s title runner up Noriyuki Haga on the factory Ducatis.
But the former British Superbike Champion admitted that it was not as easy as he made it look in Portugal, with this year’s Ducati 1198 feeling very different to the one that he rode last season.
“I think that all my team done a very good job this weekend and I want to thank Genesio Bevilacqua [team manager] for his great work and also Ducati, because they gave us a really strong bike,” he said.
“It has been hard work and I was surprised to see how difficult it was to go fast with this bike. I started the test with exactly the same setting from my race bike from last year so the bike should be easy for me to ride, but the electronics of my 1198 are really very advanced and it took all Friday and Sunday’s test to make the most from my Ducati.
“I think I learned more in these test than in all last year. It has been a very good test and I’m very happy with the team and I hope to continue to work like this for all the season and now I look forward to the next test in Valencia.”
