[959 Panigale News]

As you may have heard Ducati is hosting the world press launch of the 959 Panigale at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo this week.

The same Circuit Ricardo Tormo that hosted the MotoGP circus 2 weeks ago for the Championship Finale and the start of 2016 Testing.

According to Motociclismo.it their best lap around the Valencia circuit straddling the 2016 959 Panigale was a 1'41.4xx; using Pirelli Diablo Super Corsa SC2 race rubbers.

Now lets have a look at the qualifying times for the MotoGP race there 2 weeks earlier:

Andrea Iannone: 1'31.056
Andrea Dovizioso: 1'31.245
Michele Pirro: 1'31.780

And the post race test (on new Michelin rubber), which featured 2 extra GP15's of Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci:

Andrea Iannone: 1'31.619
Danilo Petrucci: 1'31.717
Scott Redding: 1'31.901
Andrea Dovizioso: 1'31.967
Michele Pirro: 1'33.568

We can say that the 959 Panigale is less then 10 seconds a lap slower then a full bore MotoGP prototype. We can't help but wonder how the 959's times would have looked if it benefited from the same rubber, set up time and one of the worlds best riders in the cockpit.

A proper setup can be worth over a second and better tires could gain anywhere between a second or two. Who knows how the riders compare.

Realistically though, all this really means is that the 959 Panigale is one wicked quick street bike. And that is totally unsurprising...

 

[corsa]

The main takeaway for me on this being a real street bike is the improved torque curve, which is a fix for the dead range 899's experienced.

 

[BBBingo]

here check this out. One of Colin Edwards buddies got to ride GP level development Michelins at COTA last year on his ZX-10. Said he gained on average 10 mph through every corner. There's no lap times to compare his old tires with the michelins, but I would imagine you could eliminate nearly half of that gap by equalizing tires.

http://highperformancecrew.com/showthread.php?25965-It-over-I-am-completely-ruined/page2