Schuey can't match Rossi

It doesn’t look like Valentino Rossi has much cause to worry about Michael Schumacher snaffling his MotoGP ride any time soon: the German was 23s off Rossi’s Mugello pole position time after his first day riding the Ducati MotoGP bike.

Schumacher managed a best of 2m13s compared to Rossi’s 1.49s.

The German F1 legend had a private test on the bike on Monday (October 24). See link right.

The seven-time F1 world champion managed around two dozen laps on the bike – the fastest ever in GP history – steadily dropping his lap times throughout the day. He is due to ride it again tomorrow (Oct 25).

Rossi was around three seconds off Schumacher’s best lap at the Fiorano F1 test track when he most recently tested Schumi’s car.

In fairness, while Rossi has raced cars before and done much in ther way of go-karting, Schumacher’s biking experience is far more limited: he rides Ducati Monsters and Harleys, and as we all know the penalties for lobbing a bike in a fit of over-enthusiasm is far higher than chucking a car in the gravel.

More news as we get it…