Michael Schumacher 8 seconds off race pace on his third Ducati MotoGP test

Ducati Corse seem to have run out of motorcyclists with which to perform development testing of their 800cc GP8 MotoGP bike; after one of their test riders injured himself at Thursday’s Mugello development session, they gave Casey Stoner’s bike to a car driver.

This is the third time Michael Schumacher has been set loose on a Ducati MotoGP bike. His first effort in 2005 on the balltearing 990cc GP7 saw the F1 champ 16 seconds off the pace - but on his second run last November he set tongues wagging by being only 5 seconds off the lap record at Valencia on the 800cc bike.

Thus, expectations were high when he hit the track yesterday - but sadly, the best lap Shuey could muster from his 42 attempts was a 1min 58 seconds, well off Pedrosa’s best 800cc race lap of 1min 50.3 from 2007. The Ferrari superstar offered a feeble “difficult weather conditions” excuse, but frankly, the tarmac in those photos looks pretty dry.

While Schumacher is enjoying a little motorcycle racing in his retirement (finishing fourth on his official bike racing debut in the KTM Trophy at Misano last weekend), he’s got no ambitions for top-level racing. “It was a nice surprise yesterday when I received the sudden offer to come to Mugello today,” Michael said. “And despite the difficult weather conditions it was again big fun to ride the Ducati. But I repeat it very clearly that I have no intention at all to step into any kind of MotoGP competitions.”

That doesn’t mean Marco Melandri can relax, though, he just has to look over his *other* shoulder.

Source and photos: crash.net