French GP - Free Practice
DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM ON THE PACE AT LE MANS
 Ducati
Marlboro Team men Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi made a
promising start to the French GP in gloomy and sometimes damp
conditions today. World Championship leader Stoner ended the
day sixth fastest, just four tenths off the fastest lap, while
team-mate Loris Capirossi was getting up to speed in 11th
spot, eight tenths off ‘pole'.
Stoner pronounced himself confident, his GP7 already performing
well at a circuit that's so different from Shanghai, where
two weeks ago he won his third race of the year. Capirossi
found a good set-up direction this afternoon and would have
lapped faster if rain hadn't dampened the track during the
final five minutes of the session.
CASEY STONER, 6th fastest, 1m35.759s
"The track's not in the best condition but the lap times
we are doing are pretty much on a par with the 990s, and considering
this is an acceleration track I think the 800s are doing exceptionally
well. We expected this circuit to be a little more difficult
but our settings seem pretty good at the moment. We're doing
the best job we can to get the bike to hook up out of the
turns and Bridgestone are doing an excellent job as well.
We already smoothed down the rear suspension because I was
having a few pumping problems and we also seem to have solved
the braking problems we had this morning. Now we just need
to make some little tweaks in the front and get a bit more
traction in the rear. I went out at the start of this afternoon's
session with tyres that had already done six or seven laps
and I did race distance no problem. If it's really hot we've
got another set of harder tyres, but the tyres we've got for
these conditions are doing race distance absolutely no dramas,
so we're looking pretty safe again."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 11th fastest, 1m 36.139s
"We solved the few little problems we had this morning
and started this afternoon with a better set-up. We then made
a few more minor adjustments during the second session and
my last run was quite fast. Unfortunately I was only able
to do a couple of laps before it started raining, but we know
that we have found the right direction and that's what matters
for the rest of the weekend. We tried just one rear tyre today
and we have two more to test, so I think it's possible we
can also improve that part of the bike. Above all we need
to improve our settings for the last part of the track because
I'm still slow in the final split. Anyway, I feel good and
confident enough for the next two days."
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