Catalan GP - Free Practice
DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM RIDERS ON THE PACE
Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi
completed day one of the Catalan Grand Prix very much on the
pace, with fourth and sixth fastest times at the challenging
Catalunya circuit.
In hot, sunny conditions the pair were just 0.4 and 0.5 seconds
off the quickest times and can look forward to another day
of good weather - in vivid contrast to last weekend's rain-lashed
Italian GP practice sessions - in which to get the best out
of the Desmosedici GP7 and its ever-improving Bridgestone
tyres for Sunday's race.
CASEY STONER, 4th fastest, 1m 43.543s
"It's a similar situation to what we were in at Mugello
- we are fast enough but we've not got that little bit extra
at the moment. This morning we weren't too bad but this afternoon
we seemed to have gone in the wrong direction. We tested a
lot of things - different front tyres, different rear tyres,
different chassis set-ups, links and so on - and basically
I think we made it a little too confusing, so we need to go
back to what we had and then go off in a different direction.
Same as every weekend we're looking for more traction and
more turning in the long corners. We still need to improve
the bike but the tyres aren't so bad and we've not been through
the whole range yet, we've still got a couple more rears to
try tomorrow."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 6th fastest, 1m 43.631s
"This afternoon didn't go as well as this morning because
the tyres that were available for the second session weren't
as good as those we used in the first session. With the new
tyre rules we don't always have enough of the better tyres
to use in all sessions, so we had to use another tyre, that's
why we weren't so fast this afternoon. Anyway, at least we
know that we already have a good tyre for this track, and
we still have one more to try tomorrow. I am using the standard
spec engine here. Mostly we have been working mostly on the
chassis, with promising results. I'm not so happy with my
lap times or my position but I think we can look forward to
improving tomorrow."
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