The Dutch 3D Cup or the Dutch Ducati Dealer Cup is prepared for his fifth edition.

The 2010 edition will be organised with Affetto Ducati, Biggelaar Performance, Ducati Zaltbommel, Motor Mercuur (Motor Experience Center), Motorcentrum Terneuzen, Star Twin, Motortoer located in Amsterdam and Berry Goedhart Motoren from Bodegraven.

Officialy support by Ducati West Europe and Pirelli. For more information please mail to 3dcup@sads.nl

The Ducati Caffe in Rome offers for the coming Valentine’s Day a truly exciting menu with romantic candle-lite and with lots of red roses:
For information and reservations:
DUCATI CAFFE’
Via delle Botteghe Oscure, 35
00186 Roma
Tel 06.68891718
info@ducaticafferoma.com
www.ducaticafferoma.com

The registrations to the next edition of the Ducati Speed Week, that will be held on the track of Pannoniaring, in Hungary, from the 23rd to the 25th of July 2010, are already a lot. To who is interested we remember that there is time until 28 February in order to have the discount on the price of the registration: just 220 Euros all inclusive (free practice, qualifying, warm up and race). After this date, the registration to the DSW will cost 290 Euros. We remember that the Ducati Speed Week is an event dedicated to the amateur rider from all Europe, with all kind of bike and without a specifical racing licence. Further information and the entry form are available on www.ducatispeedweek.org; if you have any question write to: info@ducatispeedweek.org

Second day of testing has concluded for the Pramac Racing Team on the Sepang circuit, Malaysia. Riders Aleix Espargarò and Mika Kallio have chosen different methods of work and this has reflected on the final result. The Catalan rider, Espargarò, was concentrated in finding the best feeling with the Ducati Sat to significantly improve yesterday best lap times concluding with the ninth best time of this first 2010 winter test. His teammate, Kallio, concentrated on modifying its bike but things didn’t go too well and he couldn’t manage to improve and concluded in seventeenth position. The Pramac Racing duo will return on track on February 25th in Sepang.

Aleix Espargaro: “Yesterday we have tried to find a constant pace while today we focused looking for the fast lap. It wasn’t so bad; on the contrary, I am really pleased on how things have gone. This is only my first winter test in MotoGP and I can only improve in the future. The arm on which I had surgery on this past winter doesn’t hurt anymore and my physical condition, notwithstanding the heat of these days, seems to be in good conditions. I look forward to come back on track at the end of the month here in Malaysia.”

Mika Kallio: “Likely this was just a winter test. We tried many changes on the bike set up, but we had some difficulties to improve the situation and for this reason we lost a lot of time working on our bikes in the garage. We will have to give our best in the next test so that things can change. We are too far from the firsts and our goal is to remain consistently between top 10 riders in every single session.”

The second and final day of MotoGP testing at Sepang was affected by mixed weather conditions, with rain in the morning making way for sun in the afternoon. However, several riders chose to take to the track from 9am, including Nicky Hayden who was the fastest on the wet track. Others, like Casey Stoner, preferred to wait until around 1pm, by which time the track had completely dried until another heavy downpour on the strike of 5pm that saw the session extended until 6pm.

Casey Stoner, second fastest overall, was satisfied with the set-up work done with the new bike over the two days in Malaysia and with his physical condition, following what was a very demanding session due to the intense heat and humidity. Hayden, eighth fastest, would have been happier if it hadn’t started to rain just as he was preparing to fit new slick tyres but he was pleased to have at least improved on his best time from yesterday and to have set a consistent pace.

Casey Stoner,2nd fastest, 2’01.320 (44 laps): “We are quite happy with the test. Today didn’t start really well because of the rain and the wet track, which set us back a few hours, but when it finally did dry out we were able to make some progress. We have definitely improved the set-up of the bike, trying some different things with the swingarm. The lap times are still not where we want them to be and we have to work on taking another couple of tenths off on hard tyres, but to be consistently doing 2’01.9 or 2’02.0 laps is a decent pace. Considering that we are using a different engine to the one we’ve had for the last three years and some other new parts that we still need to get the best out of we certainly can’t be unhappy with where we’re at. There is work to do but we have two more test sessions before the season starts for real. In general I am really pleased with how it’s gone.”

Nicky Hayden, 8th fastest, 2’02.493 (64 laps): “I am satisfied but I could be happier. These past two days have flown by and the weather hasn’t helped us to make the most of the track time available. Anyway, this morning we got the chance to find a wet setting for the new forks and engine. When we went out in the dry I could feel an instant improvement on yesterday and I set a decent pace but then we didn’t improve further. I would have liked to post a better lap time but just when we put some new tyres in the rain came back. However, it was a very positive test and I can’t wait to get back to work at the next one in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Jorge Martínez’s latest signing completes excellent first MotoGP outing of 2010 as fastest rookie

The first test of 2010 concluded today at around 1730h local time at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia, where rain continued to affected proceedings. Whilst yesterday there were showers only in the morning, today the rain fell at the start and the end of the day, giving the riders a small window of dry track time in mid-afternoon. Valentino Rossi was the fastest rider on track for the second successive day, with the next session scheduled for the 25th February, when the MotoGP field will be back in action here at Sepang.

Aspar Team rider Héctor Barberá took to the wet circuit at around 10:30am to complete eight laps of Sepang in the rain. He was later able to spend time refining the base set-up of his Ducati GP10 in the dry but unfortunately when he was feeling his most comfortable and had fitted new tyres was the moment the rain returned and hence prevented him from improving his lap time further. However, Héctor’s times were impressive considering it was his first visit to this circuit on a MotoGP bike and he ended the session as the fastest rookie. The Spaniard is convinced that his adaptation to the team and the bike is going well and he heads home from the first test of the year in good spirits.

Héctor Barberá 2.03.032 (53 laps): “I am really happy because even though it rained so much at the start of the day and at the end we were able to work well. I have set similar lap times to yesterday but the really pleasing thing is that we have been able to work on aspects of the set-up of my Ducati. At the end of the day the session is for testing things and that is what we have done, just trying a bunch of different configurations. It was a shame it rained again just when I had put some new slicks in and I was going to try and improve my time. Anyway, I’m happy because the team has done an excellent job and I think that the whole package – the bike and the relationship with the Ducati engineers – is coming along nicely. These two days felt short but I leave Sepang knowing that we have a lot of room for improvement and I’m excited about coming back here for the next test soon.”

Today the full complement of MotoGP riders roared back into action for the first time in 2010 at Sepang, after a first day exclusively available to test riders, who performed ‘shakedown’ sessions on their machines yesterday. It was a positive start for the two Ducati Marlboro Team riders, who were 2nd and 7th fastest respectively.

Stoner, who expressed his satisfaction with the new engine, was quickly on the pace and then focused on the set-up of his bike trying to solve a problem of chatter. Hayden, who was also testing a new fairing today, set a good pace but struggled with the same problem as his team-mate. The pair are now looking forward to working more on the base settings of the GP10 and are confident of improving it tomorrow.

Weather-wise it was a demanding day for all of the riders, with ambient temperatures reaching 40°C and the thermometer hitting 60°C on the track. Around fifteen minutes before the scheduled end of the test, a light rain shower brought it to an early conclusion. The track will be open again tomorrow from 9am to 5pm for the second and final day of the test.

Casey Stoner 2nd fastest 2’01.902 (42 laps): “This first day was a bit difficult to understand: we started off with a setting that was quite good and that allowed us to make reasonably good lap times. We thought we would improve as the day went on but we had a few problems with chatter. We tried a lot of different combinations trying to make the bike feel a little bit better but we couldn’t really get an improvement. To be honest it was difficult to work out why because the track conditions were particularly difficult – it was so hot that it was actually hard to understand if you were make an improvement on the bike or not. In any case I’m really happy with the new engine, I think that with the other one we would have struggled more. Now the bike in general feel very good, very balanced and I’m happy with it. Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler tomorrow so that we can understand better if the changes we try are the right ones”.

Nicky Hayden – 7th fastest 2’02.792 (59 laps): “Overall the day was positive, sure it went quite fast actually and at the end of the day when we were ready to do some more laps the rain came and cut it a little bit short. It would be nice to have the chance to do some more laps. But overall the bike was feeling quite good. We made a couple of little tweaks that helped us but we struggle a lot for edge chatter. There’s not much testing before the start of the season so we’ve got to move fast: day one is in the bag, we have established a good starting point and we go from here”.

Pramac Racing riders, Mika Kallio and Aleix Espargarò, have returned at work on the Sepang circuit in Malaysia after the long winter break. The day was very hot and this has made an even tougher first day on track for 2010. Aleix Espargarò has slipped while it was going through a slow turn: nothing worrying for the Spanish rider who went back on track without complications just a few moments later. The Pramac Racing Team and its riders will be back on the track tomorrow for other important laps in preparation for the new agonistic season.

Mika Kallio:”It is always nice to come back on the track but like this it was really difficult: I passed from -20 degrees of Finland to the almost 40 degrees here in Malaysia. Today was really hard and now I need a long night of rest to feel better tomorrow. The situation on the track is good; the bike has significantly improved from last season thanks to the best delivery of the new engine prepared by Ducati. We are confident that in this direction we can have a good season.”

Aleix Espargarò:”Help, here is incredibly hot. We have succeeded in achieving an acceptable chronometric result anyway as we have worked well today. First impressions on this year bike is very good: when coming out of the turns the bike is less aggressive, it seems that there is not enough power, but instead the bike is as fast as last year which is really good. It is an excellent step forward. Now it’s our turn to find the best way to ride the bike and improve our lap times.”

The Spaniard back to work in style on Ducati GP10, setting tenth fastest time overall

The winter break officially ended today as seventeen MotoGP riders returned to action at the Sepang Circuit for the first test session of 2010. The track was open exclusively to test riders yesterday but from 9am this morning to 5pm this evening the main players in this year’s MotoGP World Championship were in action. The premier-class contenders rode their 2010 machines in intense heat (ambient 38º C, track 52ºC) before a rain shower shortly before the end of the session (16.30 p.m.) brought it to an early conclusion.

Aspar Team rider Héctor Barberá set the tenth fastest time of an opening day (2′03.030) dominated by Valentino Rossi. The Spaniard’s carefully planned day started at 9.30am, with the first of a series of six to eight lap runs designed at establishing a preliminary feel for the Ducati GP10. The intense heat and the extended break from action over the winter meant Héctor needed to take an hour-long break from 1pm before returning to the track. On the 57th of 59 laps he clocked his best time of the day, leaving him as the top rookie overnight.

Héctor Barberá 2.03.030 (59 laps): “At the start I was riding it like a 250. I had adapted to the bike in the last test but it was difficult to get a feel for it again over the first ten laps. Then we started to make changes to the set-up and I progressively got better in my riding. I thought it would be easier to ride at Sepang because it is a long and wide circuit but it turned out to be the opposite because everything happens so fast. We have improved step by step and I felt very comfortable by the end so I think we’re on the right lines. I’m really happy because for the first day we’ve done a fabulous job. Just when I was riding my best it start to rain but we still have all day tomorrow. We didn’t want to try too much today so we limited ourselves to six to eight lap runs yet even so I feel really fatigued because of the heat. It’s also a long time since I have ridden but I’m not worried about that because I feel I’m in good shape and my winter training programme is going to plan.”