Turkish GP - Qualifying
DUCATI MARLBORO MEN A FRACTION OFF FRONT ROW
 Ducati
Marlboro Team men Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi will start
tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix from the second row of the grid
after qualifying fourth and fifth, narrowly missing out on
the front row.
Stoner - who has been in impressive form all weekend, running
fastest in two practice sessions - ended this afternoon's
qualifying session just half a second off pole. Back-on-form
Capirossi was 0.184 seconds off his team-mate after improving
the set-up of his Desmosedici GP7.
CASEY STONER, 4th fastest, 1m 53.375s
"We are very confident on race set-up. We are reasonably
sure of what set-up and what tyres we're going to use for
the race so we didn't have to do too much testing this afternoon
and I think we can look forward to a good battle up front.
I was in the pits for a while before my qualifying runs just
because we had already tested all the tyres we needed to and
we know what we're going to use, so there was no real point
doing more laps to wear myself out and risk things. The first
qualifier didn't go too well, I wasn't very confident with
it, I ran wide and didn't do the best effort. The second qualifier
would've been a lot better but unfortunately I couldn't get
rid of a few riders before the lap, they were tailing me,
waiting for me to go. I suppose I slowed down too much trying
to get rid of them, the tyres got too cold and when I started
the lap the tyres were moving around a lot. As the lap went
on I got a bit better and a bit better but it was just my
fault for taking it too easy on the out lap."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 5th fastest, 1m 53.559s
"This afternoon we made some changes for maybe less
rear grip but more front-end stability. As soon as I got out
of the pits I was able to lap do 1m 54s, so our race pace
is good. We had two qualifiers: a new tyre and a more standard
tyre. I tried the new one first and it was good, it's got
a lot of potential. I felt so good with that tyre that in
one corner in the second split I got third gear half an hour
earlier than usual, but I was too fast, went onto the kerb
and almost crashed. Maybe I lost seven tenths right there.
When I got back to the pit I only had one tyre left which
isn't one of my favourites but I gave 110 per cent and finally
I got fifth. The second row isn't so bad. What makes me very
happy is that I really enjoyed riding today and I feel at
ease in race trim. Bridgestone have made a really good job,
they've solved a lot of problems we had last year here and
tomorrow we will be able to fight at the front. I don't want
to make predictions, I just want to enjoy myself again and
we will see what happens."
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