From MotoGP.com, but without any of admins journalistic flare I’m afraid:lbhbh:

Eugene Laverty ends the first day of the Valencia test happy after making his debut on the Ducati Desmosedici GP14.2.

Aspar MotoGP Team’s Laverty completed 46 laps on his new Ducati and seemed happy from the moment he left the pits, despite crashing. The Irishman put this down to a wrong front fork setting and not the new Michelin tyres and bounced back to finish the day in 21st as he also got to try a seamless shift gearbox for the first time in his career.

His best lap was 1’33.253, which saw him 1.702s off the pace of the man at the top of the timesheets, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, but two-tenths quicker than his best lap from Sunday’s race

Eugene Laverty: “From the first few exits on the Ducati I really enjoyed it. I didn’t expect the transition to be so seamless. It’s a nice bike to ride, with plenty of power out of the corner, which is always a good thing. The power is there right through the range and that allows you to build the speed progressively. I wasn’t sure if it would suit my style because I like to pick the bike up out of the corner, whereas I noticed other Ducati riders this year using quite a lot of angle, but it was fine. This is the first time in twenty years of riding motorcycles that I have used a seamless gearbox so it was something special. Changing gear in turn 12, I had to be a little careful because the power is there right away, whereas I’m used to a slight delay. Like a lot of other riders are saying I feel like the new tyres have a lot of grip on the rear, even when it is worn, but I don’t have a good feeling with the front yet. We need to change our front fork setting to allow me to push the front a little harder, I had a small crash in the first right hand corner so at least I know to take it a little easier there! But I can’t really say the problem in the front is the tyre, it is just a matter of adapting the suspension how I like it. It has been nice to see some red shirts in the garage today, even Gigi [dall’Igna] himself paid us a visit so it is clear we have the support of the factory and that is really important.”