Catalan GP - Qualifying
STONER 0.27S FROM POLE AND STUNNING IN RACE TRIM,
CAPIROSSI OUT OF LUCK IN QUALIFYING
 Ducati
Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi will
start tomorrow's Catalan Grand Prix from the second and sixth
rows of the grid after contrasting fortunes in this afternoon's
qualifying session, run in blazing hot sunshine.
World Championship leader Stoner ended the session a close
fourth quickest, less than three tenths off pole, but more
crucially for tomorrow his pace in race trim was extremely
impressive after his crew modified his set-up to give him
more grip during this morning's session, when they also selected
Bridgestone tyres that offer brilliant performance at this
technically demanding track.
Capirossi had a luckless afternoon, even though he had been
happy enough with his race pace in the earlier sessions. Eighth
fastest in free practice he did three runs on qualifiers,
none of which produced the expected results. His first run
was cut short by a technical glitch, his second was spoiled
by traffic and he wasn't keen on the new qualifier he tried
during his final outing.
CASEY STONER, 4, 1'42.117
"This morning we did pretty much full distance on race
tyres with no real dramas. We're really happy but we haven't
got enough quantity of that tyre, so we just threw on some
other ones for this afternoon's session and we still managed
to go pretty quick, quicker than everybody else on race tyres.
We're happy enough with that and I think we're just going
to leave the settings as they are for tomorrow, it's looking
good. The tyres we've chosen, the hotter the weather the better
they work, so this afternoon they probably would've worked
better again. This morning we definitely found a bit more
grip, which is helping a lot in the long corners, we just
balanced out the bike some more, so it's not too much on the
front or too much on the rear. My qualifying runs were a little
disappointing, I thought we could've done a little better
but the way we've got the bike set up at the moment it works
better with race tyres. Anyway, we're still not too far off
and we're on the second row again."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 17, in 1'43.948
"Clearly, this is the worse Saturday I've had so far.
When I went out with my first qualifier I had a technical
glitch with the bike I had been using all weekend, so I had
to get back to the garage on a scooter. On my next run aboard
my number-two bike, my best lap was ruined by Barros, who
was going very slowly in the middle on the track. That was
very disappointing but, okay, that kind of thing can happen
when there are a lot of riders on track. I had a third qualifying
tyre available but it was a new tyre that we'd never tried
and it didn't work to my satisfaction. So today was very disappointing
indeed, especially because we aren't so bad in race trim.
Maybe I wasn't the fastest out there but I am not that bad.
So I am starting from the very, very back of the grid which
means I will have to fight hard. At least there are many passing
points at this track and I should be able to ride a reasonable
rhythm. We will see what happens, I hope to do much better
than today and bring home some good points."
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