This weekend Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will head to BRNO for the 11th round of the 2011 MotoGP season. The Ducati duo had two weeks off after the Laguna Seca round and are now ready for the second half of the season to begin.
Rossi is currently in 5th place but he'll be looking to start the second half of the season on the right foot this weekend at BRNO. Rossi scored his first pole position in the 125cc class in 1996 at BRNO. The Czech GP was also home to Rossi's first of nine World Titles.
"After Laguna I took a few days of vacation, at the beach close to home. It was a short break but enough to recharge the batteries following an intense period," Rossi said. "Now we'll spend a nice mid-August at Brno.
"I'm always happy to go there. I like the track not only because it's very nice, wide and fast, and I've always gone well there, but also because it's a special place for me since it's where I earned my first pole, my first win and my first world championship. During both the race weekend and the Monday test, we'll continue concentrating on the bike's setup, with the goal of reducing the gap to the lead group."
Rossi and Hayden will stick around the Czech circuit after the race weekend to do further testing on the 2012 Ducati.
Teammate Nicky Hayden also enjoyed his time off, but Hayden just couldn't keep himself away from the track during his break. Hayden took the Ducati 1198 SP around the newly paved Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his vacation.
"It's been a bit of a break, but fortunately not all of it was away from bikes," Hayden said. "On August 5 I had an opportunity to ride a Ducati 1198 SP at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the entire infield section has been resurfaced, from Turn 5 to 16, in order to eliminate the bumps that used to limit our line options. Indy was already a great track, but now it's safer and even more fun.
"I'm ready to get to Brno now. It's a very different circuit to what we've been to for the last two races at the Sachsenring and Laguna Seca. Those are tight with short lap times, and Brno is definitely a big, open track. We know it won't be easy, but we've just got to keep chipping away. It's clear that everybody at Ducati is doing the maximum, so we'll go there and try to get a good result. Obviously the test on Monday will be really important for us. I'll probably just ride the GP11 on the race weekend and then test the new bike on Monday."
