MotoGP: Gibernau crashes in Ducati testing

Gibernau brought the test to an early end yesterday (Wednesday) because, according to the factory, he'd sorted out the areas of the bike that needed sorting a full day ahead of schedule.

Sete put in a consistent run of laps in the 1m 50.5s bracket, comfortably on par with the top ten in this year´s Mugello race. After posting a best time of 1m 48.9 on qualifiers, good enough to be on the third row of the grid for this year's race (Stoner qualified on the second row), he said: "It has been great trying out qualifiers again, after almost two years without.

"Despite the crash it has been a very positive test. I experienced the `thrill´ of a crash, but I´m fine. I have decided together with Filippo (Preziosi) not to ride any more just because we are satisfied already with the good job we did in two days. The most important thing is that the feeling with the bike in race trim was perfect almost straight away.

"I wish to thank Ducati again for the chance to ride the MotoGP bike once more. We will see together whether and how there will be the chance to continue our cooperation."

Preziosi helped fan the flames of a full-time outing for Gibernau with Ducati, saying: "A special thanks again to Sete who was as usual very helpful. I have been impressed with him getting on the pace straight away and lapping very interesting times both with race and qualifying tyres. We are evaluating together the chance to cooperate again and I hope we will be able to find an option interesting for everybody."