DUCATI MARLBORO MEN WORK HARD IN THE HEAT
Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau
were sixth and 13th quickest in this afternoon's tightly packed
Catalan GP qualifying session, with just 1.014 seconds covering
the quickest 15 riders.
Both men worked hard to get the best out of their Desmosedici
GP6s in hot and humid conditions, World Championship leader
Capirossi ending the day just 0.392 seconds off pole position
after a scintillating final lap at the track where he won
Ducati's first premier-class success in 2003. Gibernau, who
qualified on pole position at Mugello two weeks ago, was 0.857
seconds down today but still confident that overnight set-up
changes, following detailed analysis of his data from the
day's two outings, could turn things around for his home race.
The team is delighted with the progress made by Bridgestone
at this difficult race, because even though the riders' grid
positions aren't brilliant, their race pace isn't so bad.
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 6th fastest, 1m 42.247s
"Considering the way I rode that last lap, I think I
deserved better than sixth place! But sixth means the second
row and that's not so bad. We are still working on our bike
set-up, it's more difficult than usual, and I'm pushing harder
on the track, which means it's easy to make mistakes. There
are other Bridgestone bikes faster than us, so we still have
some improvements to make. Even so, I'm satisfied, not with
our qualifying performance, but with the way we have worked
so far. This morning I was the only guy who did 18 laps on
race tyres and my lap times were pretty good. Bridgestone
have made a very big step forward at this track. My best lap
today would have given me pole last year and my race pace
this morning would have put me on the podium last year. Obviously
everyone has improved since then but while we were in real
difficulties here last year, we are now in a position where
we can do something. Anyway, we must believe in ourselves
and I am determined as ever. Tomorrow I will give 100 per
cent until the chequered flag."
SETE GIBERNAU, 13th fastest, 1m 42.712s
"Starting the race from so far back is going to make
it hard for me. There's nothing we can do now about my grid
position but I think we can do something for the race, because
all the lap times are pretty close, so if we can get a good
start and do some good laps, we could be okay, though it's
definitely going to be hard. We've just got to keep our heads
down and work something out for warm-up. I think we have a
margin of improvement that I'm sure the team and myself will
be able to work around and I'll also try and put something
else into it. We are going to try quite a few things in the
morning, a little bit of everything! It's more tough than
usual here because it's my home race, I know my way around
and I like the track, we just haven't been able to get me
comfortable with the bike. I can't get into the corners the
way I like to get into them, it's something in the balance
of the bike that I can't work out. And because I'm getting
into the corners bad, I'm also getting out of them bad. There's
been talk of rain tomorrow but I hope not, I want a dry race."
Temperatures: Ambient: 28 degrees. Track:
46 degrees
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