MotoGP 2005 - Round 5

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Carlos Checa and Loris Capirossi made a superb start to the team's home GP at Mugello today, running one-two during the early stages of this afternoon's session and ending the day a close-run fourth and fifth quickest.

The two men were consistently fast throughout the hour-long outing, putting the lessons learned during their recent two-day Le Mans test to excellent use. Capirossi is already less than two tenths off his best time during qualifying for last year's Italian Grand Prix.

"In fact we've made no big changes to the bikes, just small adjustments," said Ducati Corse director Filippo Preziosi. "We proved at the last three races that we're already very fast on race tyres but we lacked the right luck and the right weather to really prove that. The last few GPs have all been affected by rain but the weather is much more consistent here, which helps us to work more effectively on bike set-up and tyre choice. So far we have been making the usual small changes to chassis settings, as well as trying different fork offsets because we are looking for the best balance between high-speed stability and manoeuvrability through all the chicanes."

Carlos Checa was flying this afternoon, lapping just 0.156 seconds than fastest-in-session Sete Gibernau. The Ducati Marlboro Team rider has already shown his impressive speed on several occasions so far this season, now he wants to turn that speed into a great result on Ducati's home tarmac.
"Overall I'm quite happy," said the Spaniard, riding the Desmosedici for the first time at Mugello. "After the morning session we improved front-end stability and the overall balance of the bike. We are building on the progress we made during our Le Mans tests. During the Le Mans GP I used a new chassis configuration (to improve turn-in), but I wasn't able to confirm that on Sunday because I had such a short race! The two-day test allowed us to confirm that this new set-up is taking us in a good direction. Now we need to find the right front tyre for this track and work more on race-distance performance."

Loris Capirossi was fifth fastest today in a closely bunched leading group, just 0.250 seconds down on the fastest time of the day. Like team-mate Checa, the Ducati Marlboro Team man is hoping for a storming result at Mugello, where the Ducatisti are much in evidence, especially in Ducati's own grandstand at Correntaio.
"I'm happy, things are going very well," said the Italian. "I'm consistently fast and right on the pace. Those tests we did at Le Mans were very useful. I was able to do a lot of work on bike set-up. I also worked on my riding style, which is never easy, but what I learned there should allow me to make better use of the tyres over race distance. This afternoon I did around 20 laps on a front tyre which is really important because the front is so crucial here. I tried several rears and will choose my race tyre tomorrow."

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