MotoGP 2005

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Carlos Checa and Loris Capirossi finished today's Valencia Grand Prix in fourth and seventh positions, completing a strong finish to their 2005 season. With two race victories and a further two podiums from the last six races the omens for the future are good.

In front of 124,000 fans Checa battled for third place for several laps, while Capirossi spent much of the race in a three-way contest for fifth spot, despite suffering from the injuries he sustained in a big crash during last month's Australian GP.

"Loris was little short of a hero this afternoon, and Carlos showed once again that he's a very strong rider," said Ducati Motor president Federico Minoli. "This year we've shown that we have a great machine, a great package. With a little more luck the season could have been even better. Overall, we're pretty satisfied, we showed we are on a par with the big Japanese factories. By comparison, we're a small company, they spend their huge budgets, we reply with passion and commitment. Thanks to everyone, including our technical partners Shell Advance, who played their part in making sure we had a 100 per cent reliability record in the 17 races. We've grown together with Bridgestone, it's a long-term partnership, and if we keep improving at this pace, next year should be very interesting."

Carlos Checa had a straightforward target today - to finish 2005 on the podium in front of his home fans. The Ducati Marlboro Team had every reason to believe he could make the top three after running fast and consistent on race tyres during practice and qualifying a close fourth quickest.

"I didn't quite have the pace that I had yesterday and during morning warm-up, I struggled to run in the 33s," explained Checa, ninth overall this year. "Tyre warm-up cost me some time, then once the tyres were hot I tried to catch the guys in front, but I couldn't as I started getting some chatter. I was with Valentino (Rossi) for a while, I was faster in some areas but it was too risky to overtake and finally he was stronger. The chatter got worse in the final laps and I slowed down, so we need to analyse that.

"I had a difficult start to the year - new bike, new team, new tyres and I got injured. It wasn't easy and there was a lot of pressure but we kept working and finally the bike and tyres were good. The last six races have been good - two podiums and only once outside the top five. I've learned a lot this year."

Loris Capirossi rode a courageous race, chasing Alex Barros and Max Biaggi for much of the 30 laps, finally easing off for a safe seventh place. The Ducati Marlboro Team was riding in some discomfort from the chest injuries he suffered at Phillip Island just 23 days ago.

"I'm satisfied because I made it here and I raced," he said. "If I hadn't come here I would've finished the year eighth overall. Instead I'm sixth. I'm happy with my race. Riding 30 laps was as difficult as I'd expected, especially the last five or six laps when I was very tired. My heart rate was really high, so during the last two laps I decided just to finish the race. Seventh position isn't so bad, I fought with Biaggi and Barros and being here to race has been very satisfying, it would've been much worse staying home. Without my crash in Australia maybe I could've finished higher in the championship but our sport isn't about ifs and buts, and anyway, Marco (Melandri, the race winner) was really good today.

"We've been really competitive since midseason, and in my opinion finishing sixth isn't bad. Ducati has improved a lot, especially in electronics and rideability. The co-operation with Bridgestone is really strong, our relationship is very close, as our six podium results demonstrate. This year we sewed, next year we'll aim to be competitive from the start and reap the reward!"

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