MotoGP 2005

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa were in the thick of the action at Brno today, both men in the top four during the closing stages of this afternoon's session. They ended the day second and sixth, confident of a good weekend ahead, thanks to sterling work by Bridgestone during MotoGP's summer recess. Both Capirossi and Checa rode their fastest laps on Bridgestone race tyres, not qualifiers, Capirossi comfortably the most consistently quick rider on the grid.

"Bridgestone did a great job during the break, today's results prove that," said Ducati MotoGP project manager Livio Suppo. "Loris wasn't only quick on his best laps, he was also very fast during his race simulation. This morning Carlos struggled a bit with set-up but this afternoon he found the right way. We are feeling happy and confident about the rest of the weekend."

CAPIROSSI JUST 0.088 SECONDS OFF POLE
Loris Capirossi was flying in the latter stages of this afternoon's second practice session, holding provisional pole until the dying moments of the outing when World Champion Valentino Rossi bettered him by just 0.088 seconds. Nonetheless the Ducati Marlboro Team rider is delighted with his day's work, praising Bridgestone's latest tyres which offer better endurance as well as extra edge grip, vital for the Italian's high-corner-speed style.

"All day we've focused on race set-up, not really worrying about lap times," said Capirossi who was fastest in this morning's first session. "During my last run I did 11 consecutive laps in the low 59s, so I'm happy but I know we've more work to do. The bike, which is pretty competitive everywhere, works really well here, as usual. Bridgestone have been working hard during the break because they've brought some interesting new tyres here. This morning I started with Sachsenring-spec tyres and I only switched to the new tyres halfway through this afternoon's session. I rode a lot of laps with them and I can say that Bridgestone are definitely working in the right direction. So far we are up with the best and I'm confident, but we must keep working and see what happens over the rest of the weekend."

CHECA GETS UP TO SPEED
Carlos Checa had his first ride at Brno aboard his Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP5 today and took his time making set-up adjustments before raising himself to the front-running pace. Fifteenth this morning, Checa ran as high as fourth this afternoon, ending the day just 0.529 seconds off 'pole'.

"Not so bad," he said. "This morning I felt a bit lost, we couldn't find the way to get up to speed. But this afternoon we found the way. I had been having trouble with the front pushing as I entered the turns, so we adjusted the balance of the bike with small changes to ride height and suspension settings. This is my first time here on this bike, so the progress we've already made suggests that our base set-up is pretty good. The latest Bridgestones are a useful improvement, they seem to offer both better performance and consistency. We still need to work some more at refining our settings but so far I'm fairly happy."

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