IRTA team tests, Catalunya, Spain
Sunday March 20 2005
DUCATI MARLBORO MEN CONCLUDE TESTING AT CATALUNYA
 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."
CAPIROSSI FOCUSES ON TYRE TESTING
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".
CHECA FORCED TO REST AFTER TUMBLE
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."
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