Free Practice - Donington
DUCATI MARLBORO MEN GO BACK TO WORK
The Ducati Marlboro Team went back to work at warm and sunny
Donington Park today, just six days after last Saturday's
Dutch TT. Riders Loris Capirossi and Alex Hofmann finished
the day tenth and 15th quickest, the Italian preferring not
to take part in the afternoon session to rest the chest injuries
he sustained in the turn-one accident at Catalunya two weeks
ago.
Capirossi is still in pain and struggling to breathe normally.
And because his injuries are internal they are difficult to
treat and are quite unresponsive to pain therapies, so rest
is the best cure in order to be as strong as possible for
Sunday's race.
Hofmann made a steady start this morning but made useful improvements
to the set-up of his Desmosedici GP6 this afternoon.
LORIS CAPIROSSI, FP1 8th fastest, 1m 29.798s
"This morning's practice went well. I was pretty happy
with our tyres and our set-up which didn't need many changes
to work here. But after ten laps or so my chest started hurting
again, though it isn't as bad as it was at Assen. After that
I decided on a new strategy, to rest this afternoon and get
back on track tomorrow, then having pain-killing injections
for the race. I think I can have a good enough race and maybe
take home useful points. I still have a strong belief in the
championship. In two weeks at the Sachsenring I expect to
be 80 to 90 per cent fit, then for the last seven races I
think we'll be very competitive from every point of view -
bike, tyres and rider."
ALEX HOFMANN, 15th fastest, 1m 30.387s
"We didn't exactly lose this morning's session but we
definitely didn't make the best of starts, that's why I'm
a bit down the list. I was struggling with wheelspin, I couldn't
get the power down but 20 minutes into this afternoon's session
we some good improvements, which allowed me to feel the bike
and the tyres so I could start to work. We made some changes
to the rear suspension settings and tested some tyres and
I think with what we've learned we can make another useful
step forward tomorrow. My aim is to do consistent 29s on race
tyres tomorrow morning, so I've got a good pace going into
qualifying."
Temperatures: Ambient: 27 degrees. Track: 44 degrees
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