Free Practice - Catalunya
DUCATI MARLBORO MEN IN THE THICK OF THE ACTION
Two weeks after a thrilling Italian GP, Ducati Marlboro Team
riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi were back in the
thick of the action at Catalunya today. The pair finished
the first two sessions eighth and 12th fastest in an ultra-tight
first day of practice, but close to the leaders on lap times,
with the top 16 riders separated by a mere 1.107 seconds.
Capirossi was just 0.596 seconds off ‘pole position'
and happy with his race pace, while Gibernau was less than
two tenths down on his team-mate, proving that Bridgestone
has made significant progress since a challenging weekend
at this track last June. Neither rider used qualifying tyres
today, preferring instead to focus on race tyres and race
set-up.
The afternoon session got underway on a slightly damp track
after a lunchtime rain shower but ended in warm sunshine.
Latest weather forecasts suggest that the rain may return
to Catalunya on race day.
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 8th fastest, 1m 43.433s
"We had some rain today, as we've had at pretty much
every race so far this year, but in general it was quite a
positive day for us. So far I'm not 100 per cent satisfied
with my bike set-up, which we need to adapt to the tyres.
However, I'm feeling focused, confident and ready to use tomorrow's
two hours of track time to find a good solution for Sunday.
I ended this afternoon's session with a 12-lap run and I'm
pretty satisfied with my race pace. I did a lot of 43s, which
is not at all bad. We always knew that this track would be
more difficult for us than the others but we are doing okay,
and, most important of all, we are much better here than we
were last year."
SETE GIBERNAU, 12th fastest, 1m 43.617s
"We started here with basically the same set-up we ran
at Mugello but we need to find a little more. I think the
bike/tyre package is better here than it was before, though
we are still getting quite a lot of wheelspin out of the turns,
so the bike isn't driving out of the corners, which is important
at any racetrack but especially here because there are a lot
of long corners. The team and I are therefore working together
to try and find a better set-up that will help the tyres.
I've got one more rear to test tomorrow which is probably
the best of the ones I didn't try today, so we'll see how
that goes. Spidi have made a great job of fixing my boots,
so my thanks to them."
Temperatures: Ambient: 25 degrees. Track: 30 degrees
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