Ducati Marlboro Team rider Loris Capirossi completed his three-day test
session at Catalunya today, learning plenty more about his Ducati
Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP5 before heading to Jerez for final
preseason tests next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Team-mate Carlos Checa
had a less useful day, forced to rest the leg and shoulder injuries he
sustained yesterday.
"It's been three difficult days, during which we've tested many new
parts and a lot of new tyres," said Ducati Corse CEO Claudio Domenicali.
"Things haven't been made easier by the two crashes we had yesterday
which effectively left us with only one of our two MotoGP riders for the
last and most important day of the tests. At least Loris learned plenty
today after taking some time to regain confidence after his fall. It's
been a tough weekend but we remain confident in the potential of the
bike/tyre package because both riders confirm that they like the
package. We know we will have good tracks and bad tracks, so we are
ready to keep working to make things better."
Loris Capirossi had another busy day at Catalunya, running a series of
front and rear tyre tests. He also took part in this afternoon's BMW
Award mock qualifying session, finishing tenth fastest and bettering his
qualifying time from last year's Catalan GP by 0.6 seconds.
"On the whole these tests have been very useful to us but we've still
got work to do," said the Ducati Marlboro Team man who was left
unscathed by his crash in yesterday's session. "The bike is pretty good
and the tyres are good at some tracks and not so good on others. Here we
struggled a bit, but we are working very closely with Bridgestone and we
are trying to improve our performance as quickly as possible. The Jerez
tests will be very important, especially because the first race is also
there, so we hope the next tests will go as well as the last session we
had there in November, our first test with Bridgestone".
Carlos Checa had a frustrating final day at Catalunya, managing only a
couple of runs before deciding he wasn't fit to ride following his
tumble in yesterday's session.
"My left leg is swollen but it's not painful, the problem is my left
shoulder," said the Ducati Marlboro Team rider. "We tried a lot of
physio but I'm not yet ready to ride, hopefully I'll be okay for Jerez
after more therapy over the next few days. We've struggled here, but
some tracks are always worse than others and we've gone pretty well at
the other tracks at which we've tested over the winter. We will now try
and analyse what wasn't right so we can improve the feeling for Jerez."
