Rossi puts shoulder through paces in Misano
Added on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Rossi puts shoulder through paces in Misano
Valentino Rossi underwent another fitness test yesterday as he put a Ducati superbike through its paces at Misano.
The Italian rider, who struggled with a shoulder injury for much of 2010 and broke his leg in Mugello early in the season, undertook the impromptu test at Misano to assess just how his recovery from surgery was progressing.
Next week’s Sepang test, will be the first time Rossi has ridden a MotoGP bike since the shoulder operation, and also mark his track debut in full Ducati Marlboro colours.
No lap times were recorded during the session but Rossi still felt that the session was useful to assess his fitness head of the Sepang test.
“First of all, thanks to Filippo (Preziosi) and to Ducati, who organised this test,” said Rossi. “Misano Circuit let us use the track on a day when Mattia (Pasini) was planning to ride in order to confirm his own condition.
“The track more or less confirmed what we expected: the shoulder is painful-especially under braking, when the front area hurts, where they stitched the tendon. Movement is stable enough, and we’re also doing not so bad with endurance, but apart from that, it hurts a lot and isn’t very strong.
“Let’s hope it gets a little better in these next few days before the test in Malaysia. Once we’re there, we’ll work with the riding position in an effort to make the most of the situation and collect important information with the Desmosedici, even though I’m not in top form.
“Today I did a total of 25 laps on the 1198 Superbike, which is sort of a ‘historic’ motorcycle for Ducati: beautiful and fast. I liked it!”
