News

With a settled machine set-up and a methodical approach that has delivered 11 race victories so far in 2011, Carlos Checa and his Althea Racing Ducati team spent most of the 120-odd laps he put in at the recent Misano tests trying out new tyres for Pirelli, both in view of the remaining rounds and next year's season opener at Phillip Island.

As always set-up tweaks were included along the way, but Checa got through five new rear tyre solutions as he put in competitive lap times and worked his way to Imola, where he is a favourite to take more race wins.

Said Carlos, "Pirelli brought some new, high performance solutions for us to try and we were able to lap consistently fast. It was hot, with conditions similar to those of the June races, with a track temperature of around 44 degrees. Even though the asphalt was hot, the tyres behaved well and we were able to maintain fast times for numerous laps. We spent maybe 80% of our time working with the tyres and the rest trying some different things with regard to set up, all very positive."

Checa used his time in the best possible way and even finished early. "We're very happy with the results of these tests," concluded Checa. "We even closed a little early because we worked so well yesterday and today that we finished all we had planned ahead of time!"