Final Day Of IRTA Test For Ducati Marlboro Team - March 27th 2005

Fine weather (air 21° C/track 43°) greeted the third and final day of the last winter testing session prior to the start of the 2005 MotoGP championship season and all the MotoGP teams present were able to prepare their bikes in view of the opening round of the season scheduled to be held here on April 10.

The three-day Jerez test concluded with a generally positive balance sheet for the Ducati Marlboro Team, which could only count on the services of Loris Capirossi and test-rider Vittoriano Guareschi as Carlos Checa is recovering from a dislocated left shoulder.

Today Loris concentrated mainly on testing several types of tyres, and the Italian obtained positive impressions from the qualifying and front tyres. "I am very satisfied with the qualifying tyres: the ones I tested were really excellent" commented Loris. "Even the front tyres go well here at Jerez and the rear race tyres are already pretty good. We felt the absence of Carlos over the last three days, and with him for sure we could have got through a lot more work. However I gave everything I could, now all we have to do is wait for April 10." Loris completed a total of 93 laps of the Spanish track, setting a best time of 1m40.55s.

Vittoriano Guareschi was also on the track for the final day of the test, and amongst other things the Italian completed a long-run with the new engine braking system.

"These were three hard days of work", declared Filippo Preziosi, Director of Ducati Corse, who has been present at both of the tests at Barcelona and Jerez. "We return home with a massive amount of data accumulated by Loris and Vitto, who were both tireless in their work as always. I would like to thank Loris for his dedication and professionalism: he worked really hard and that allowed us to make the most of this important test session, even in Carlos's absence".