From a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Constructive developments for Foggy PETRONAS Racing

Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Troy Corser and Chris Walker made encouraging strides forward in tyre development on the second day of the team’s test at Phillip Island today.

With yesterday’s blustery conditions having receded, and with new Pirelli tyre constructions and compounds to test, each rider was able to make significant improvements on their times from the first day.

Troy set the pace with a best time of 1:35.4 at his home circuit, where he achieved the best finish of fifth during the team’s debut season last year. But team-mate Chris Walker also sliced nearly 1.5 seconds off his best time of yesterday to post a lap of 1:35.9, with signs of healthy competition between the two riders already starting to develop.

Corser, who completed 52 laps of the picturesque coastal circuit near Melbourne, said: “We have been working through all the different compounds and constructions today and I think it’s now clear that the construction is more important than the rubber compound. I have found one that is more consistent but we still need to work on finding a combination of grip and durability. I changed the bike set-up today to run it exactly as I raced last year, which made a big difference of two seconds.”

Chris, who also enjoyed significantly more track time with 58 laps today, said: “We have found a tyre construction that didn’t have any chatter and that produced a transformation. The bike is now starting to feel like my bike. Changes to the pivot point made it more compliant and easy to ride. All we are lacking in set-up now is a bit more support at the rear. At the moment it feels nice in slow corners but I am running a bit wide in faster corners.”

Chief engineer Steve Thompson added: “We need to be repeating the times we were posting before here, and we are almost doing that in a non-race situation, which is very encouraging. Both riders and the team performed well today.”