CAPIROSSI BACK UP TO SPEED AND BACK ON THE PODIUM, STONER
KEEPS FIGHTING FOR FIFTH PLACE
 Ducati
Marlboro Team rider Loris Capirossi rode a brilliant race
to second place in punishing heat at the Sachsenring this
afternoon, while team-mate Casey Stoner came home in fifth
to maintain his lead at the top of the World Championship.
Capirossi chose a different compound rear Bridgestone to
Stoner and the Italian's choice paid dividends in the later
stages of the race when he came through from fourth place
to second. The newly resurfaced Sachsenring is ultra-demanding
on tyres and today's ground temperature of more than 50 degree
made tyre choice even more critical than usual. Capirossi
attributed his speed to a revised engine spec and weight distribution,
as well as a canny tyre choice.
Steadfast Stoner ran strongly in second place until two-thirds
distance, then began slipping back, fighting a spirited rearguard
battle to stay fifth, just ahead of Marco Melandri and John
Hopkins. Stoner had started the race from pole position after
leading every pre-race session.
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 2nd place, 8th in World Championship
on 77 points
"It's been a long time, but I'm back! My team worked
really hard here to find the best solution for the race. We
changed the weight distribution, putting more weight on the
front to give me more confidence going into the turns. The
first half of the season was tough but I hope that we have
now found a good way to go quick for the rest of the season.
My thanks also to the Bridgestone guys, because we worked
hard to choose the best race tyres, deciding to use a different
rear from most of the other Bridgestone riders. At the start
of the race I didn't push too hard, my tactic was to save
the tyres, so I stayed behind Marco [Melandri] in fourth place.
Later on I was able to continue my rhythm and move forward.
I knew Nicky (Hayden) was coming during the last laps but
I had enough to hold on."
CASEY STONER, 5th place, World Championship leader
on 196 points
"At the start of the race I was pretty happy sitting
behind Dani. He was able to find a little more traction than
me in most parts and he had a bit more confidence in his bike
through a lot of the turns, so I was just trying to stay there
or thereabouts and see what happened at the end of the race.
I didn't want to push too much harder, I was slowly pulling
a gap on Melandri behind me and I thought I really want to
save my tyres for the end. Then unfortunately we lost some
rear grip and we weren't able to keep the same lap times,
so we slowly started to drop through the pack, but we ended
up fifth. Today was a damage limitation exercise. Dani [Pedrosa,
the race winner] rode a great race, he was untouchable today.
Towards the end Marco and John seemed to have a lot more grip
than me in a few places, anyway, I fought them off and we
were able to keep fifth position which is a few more points.
I'm kind of disappointed, I felt we could have had a minimum
of second today, reasonably easy, so we'll just have to come
back at the next race and try to be stronger and iron out
our weak points."
LIVIO SUPPO, Ducati MotoGP project manager
"We're very happy to see Loris fighting up front again
and back on the podium. He chose a different rear tyre from
Casey which worked well for him. Casey worked hard and got
the best out of his package today. He dominated every session,
so he deserved to finish on the podium."
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