Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul Park
Qualifying, Saturday April 29 2006
DUCATI MEN SHINE IN SOAKING QUALIFYING
Ducati Team riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi put
in dazzling performances in dismal conditions at Istanbul
Park this afternoon. Despite a soaking wet and treacherously
slippery track, the pair qualified third and fourth quickest
for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix, round three of the 2006
MotoGP series.
Gibernau will thus start from the first row for the second
time this season while World Championship leader Capirossi
will lead row two, his first time off the front row this year.
Both riders were particularly impressive today because this
was only Gibernau's second serious wet-weather outing on his
Desmosedici GP6 while Capirossi is making his first visit
to Istanbul Park after missing last year's race through injury.
And both riders suffered from meeting traffic on their best
laps.
The pair also exploited the massive grip of their Bridgestone
rain tyres to brilliant effect in this morning's practice
session, Capirossi first and Gibernau second, a whole second
ahead of their nearest challengers. But weather forecasts
suggest that although tomorrow will start wet, the race could
be run in the dry. If that prediction proves correct, it's
not great news for Capirossi, who only had two hours of dry
track time yesterday to learn the circuit.
SETE GIBERNAU, 3rd fastest, 2m 05.003
"We're happy. I've not ridden the bike so much in the
wet, so for now we're doing better than we thought we would
in these conditions. Ducati and Bridgestone are doing an outstanding
job and I'm very happy with that. I was pushing hard today
because it's important to know you can be fast whether it's
dry or wet. If you want to race for the championship you have
to be competitive no matter what. I think we proved today
that we can be up there in the rain as well as the dry."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 4th fastest, 2m 05.540s
"Fourth isn't bad at all. I found some traffic, so I
wasn't as fast as I'm sure I could have been, but the fact
that I know I could've been faster makes me feel good. The
conditions were strange, this track isn't too grippy in the
dry but it's got good grip in the wet, though you have to
be careful not to touch the white lines. I hope it will rain
for the race because I've not had much time on a dry track
and we still need to work on our dry settings. A dry race
would be more difficult for me. Yesterday I was only four
tenths from 'pole' but I feel comfortable in the wet. We are
competitive in all conditions which is good for the championship.
Today's qualifying session was nice and if it's the same for
the race I think there will be a few of us up front."
Temperatures: Ambient: 12 degrees. Track: 15 degrees
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