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Ducati Marlboro Men Conclude Testing At Catalunya - March 20th 2005


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    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."