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MotoGP
2005 - Round 8 - Laguna Seca MotoGP Qualifying - Ducati Report July 9th, 2005
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MotoGP
2005 - Round 8 - Laguna Seca MotoGP Qualifying - Ducati Report July 9th, 2005
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| Ducati Team rider Carlos
Checa qualified on the third row at warm but blustery Laguna
Seca this afternoon. Team-mate Loris Capirossi ended the day
on the fifth row, suffering the after-effects of yesterday's
attack of gastroenteritis. Second quickest with five minutes to go, Checa eventually slipped to eighth, though his impressive pace on race tyres earlier in the session gives the Ducati Team some hope for tomorrow's US GP. "Carlos ran a good rhythm on race tyres today, so he could have a good race tomorrow," said Ducati MotoGP project manager Livio Suppo. "We had been hoping he might start from one of the front two rows but now he'll need a good getaway from the third row. It's a pity Loris still isn't well, he's not feeling strong and he's finding it difficult to concentrate, but we hope he will be in much better shape for the race." Carlos Checa will start tomorrow's US GP from eighth on the grid, sandwiched by Max Biaggi and Makoto Tamada. "Race-bike set-up is always a compromise, especially here because it's uphill, downhill, slow and fast," said the Spaniard. "It's not even easy to keep the front end on the ground around this track, so it's impossible to feel 100 per cent confident here. But we've come up with the best compromise we can and now I'm looking forward to the race. I've run some good times on race tyres and the bike is the best it's been all weekend. Tomorrow will be tough - the first few laps will be interesting, I hope no one does anything stupid, and it's a long race too." Loris Capirossi missed most of yesterday afternoon's practice session following a nasty attack of gastroenteritis. The Italian Ducati Team rider was able to ride again today but he's still not back to full strength and is still suffering from a lack of track time. "I'm not feeling great, I don't feel 100 per cent clear-headed, so I can't ride the way I'd like to ride," he said. "On my fast lap I had some traffic in my way, so I wasn't able to fully exploit the extra grip of my Bridgestone qualifiers. Also, I didn't manage to find the perfect set-up, so the bike still isn't properly fixed for this track. I hope we'll be able to use warm-up to improve the settings, so the bike turns into the corners better."
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MotoGP Championship
2005
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