The Ducati Marlboro Team leaves behind the torrid heat of Sepang after three days of winter testing that concluded last Sunday to begin another three-day session, this time at Australia's Phillip Island circuit.

Spring-like temperatures of around 20° (track 40°) characterised the first of the three days of testing scheduled for the Italian team. This gave Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa an ideal opportunity to set up the Desmosedici GP5 and put in a considerable amount of mileage around the technical island circuit.

Ducati engineers focussed mainly on suspension set-up today, and several different solutions that had already been tested previously were again used in preparation for tomorrow, when the work will specifically revolve around the development of the Bridgestone tyres.

Carlos Checa, who was quite satisfied with his first intense day of activity on the Australian track, completed 89 laps, setting a quickest time of 1m30.69s. The Spanish rider tried several different set-ups and was pleased with the handling of his Desmosedici GP5.

"Yes, I managed to establish a good feeling with the bike today, but we still have a lot of work to do", admitted Carlos. "If the weather tomorrow is the same as today, we will be able to test the rear tyres in excellent conditions".

Loris Capirossi was able to leave his bout of flu behind in Malaysia together with the stifling heat and humidity and he returned to the track rested and determined to get the most out of this penultimate winter testing session. Loris totalled 78 laps, ending the day with a best time of 1m30.81s.

Even though Loris's team concentrated on obtaining a good race set-up, the Italian rider went out a few times with tyres that had been used previously and tested a number of different rear suspension solutions.

"I'm a lot better now and it feels good to get back on the track again" declared Loris. "I want to use every minute of these tests to continue the development of the bike. Today we focused on the suspension set-up, we worked well and succeeded in laying the groundwork for the next two days we will be spending here".