German GP - Preview
DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM READY FOR THE 'RING
The Ducati Marlboro Team commences the second half of the
2007 MotoGP season at the Sachsenring with the remarkable
Casey Stoner leading the riders' World Championship on five
wins and two further podium places from the first nine GPs.
Team-mate Loris Capirossi has had a less lucky run of races
in recent weeks and currently holds ninth place in the points
chase, but the Bologna-based squad still heads the teams'
championship, with Ducati also ahead in the constructors'
points table.
The German Grand Prix follows a busy sequence of four races
over five weekends and is immediately succeeded by the United
States GP on July 22. MotoGP then gets a well-deserved four-week
break before the Czech GP on August 19.
LIVIO SUPPO, Ducati MotoGP project director
"We start the second half of the season still leading
the championship and very much looking forward to the next
nine races. During this period there are several circuits
that suit our machine package, so that is a positive for us.
The Sachsenring is quite a strange circuit, quite tight in
places and with no big straights, but we have always gone
quite well there, so we go into this race feeling fairly confident
of a good result."
CASEY STONER, World Championship leader on 185 points
"Every race we are still learning about the set-up of
the bike, especially when we go to different types of circuit.
The Ducati and the Bridgestones have been working well at
pretty much every circuit, so when we get to Germany we'll
just concentrate and keep doing what we've been doing. I got
my first-ever podium at the Sachsenring, the track is fun
on a 125 but it's a little bit more difficult to negotiate
some of those turns on a MotoGP bike. You definitely need
good side grip because through a lot of those long corners
you need to keep the gas open as long as possible. You also
need to get your head around those uphill and downhill corners
- coming down the hill into those fast lefts gets a bit scary,
you have to make sure your suspension doesn't bottom out,
then you head back up the hill and then down again. As you
come over the top at turn 12 the rear gets very light and
wants to wriggle around, so you really need some traction
over the top there."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 9th overall on 57 points
"I really like the Sachsenring, even if it always feels
a little strange on a MotoGP bike, because there are so many
slow and tight corners. I think the track will be more fun
on the 800 than it was on the 990 because the new bikes are
a bit more nimble, so they are a bit faster into the corners
and through the corners. The first part is too slow, but from
turn six or seven it gets quite interesting. Turn 12 is a
very exciting corner, because it's blind and you throw the
bike in there at over 200 km/h, then you go steeply downhill
on the run to turn 13. We go into this race after a couple
of difficult weekends at Donington and Assen. But this is
racing, sometimes things don't go your way and the only answer
is to keep cool and keep working to make things better. We
have been making some improvements to the bike over the last
few races but so far we haven't been able to turn these improvements
into a good result."
THE TRACK
The Sachsenring first appeared on the World Championship
calendar way back in 1961. The high-speed street circuit quickly
became one of racing's most popular venues, regularly attracting
a quarter of a million sports-starved East German fans.
The lethal street circuit hosted its last GP in 1972, an
all-new short circuit returning the venue to the world calendar
in 1998. At that time the new circuit was the slowest in GP
racing, with a lap speed of just 143km/h-89mph. Revisions
for 2000 upped the pace to 150 km/h-93mph and the addition
of an extra loop in 2001 increased lap speeds to the current
158km/h-98mph record. Nevertheless the character of the anti-clockwise
circuit is still tight and twisty, putting the emphasis on
delicate mid-range engine performance rather than brute top-end
horsepower.
SACHSENRING DATA
Lap record: Dani Pedrosa (Honda), 1m 23.355s, 158.546km/h-98.516mph
Pole position 2006: Pedrosa (Honda), 1m 21.815s
DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM RIDER DATA LOGS
LORIS CAPIROSSI
Age: 34 (born 4 April 1973)
Lives: Monaco
Bike: Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP7
GP starts: 257 (87xMotoGP, 59x500, 84x250, 27x125)
GP victories: 28 (6xMotoGP, 2x500, 12x250, 8x125)
First GP victory: Britain, 1990 (125)
First GP: Japan, 1990 (125)
Pole positions: 41 (8xMotoGP, 5x500, 23x250, 5x125)
First pole: Australia, 1991 (125)
World Championships: 3 (125: 1990, 1991, 250: 1998)
Sachsenring 2006 results: Grid: 5th. Race: 5th
CASEY STONER
Age: 21 (born 16 October 16 1985)
Lives: Monaco
Bike: Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP7
GP starts: 86 (25xMotoGP, 31x250, 30x125)
GP victories: 12 (5xMotoGP, 5x250, 2x125)
First GP victory: Valencia, 2003 (125)
First GP: Britain, 2001 (125)
Pole positions: 6 (2xMotoGP, 2x250, 2x125)
First pole: Netherlands, 2003 (125)
Sachsenring 2006 results: Grid: 8th. Race: DNS
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