| The Ducati Marlboro Team goes into
tomorrow's Czech Grand Prix in confident mood, Loris Capirossi
showing impressive speed in both today's outings, running fastest in
morning practice and second quickest in afternoon qualifying.
Team-mate Alex Hofmann, subbing for the injured Sete Gibernau,
qualified 14th. Capirossi,
who finished a close second here last year, was delighted after his
engineers made a big adjustment to his Desmosedici's geometry to
improve stability. After that he was just 0.250 seconds off pole
position on qualifying tyres and also showed superb speed in race
trim, clocking consistently fast times (including an amazing 1m
57.7s) on race tyres. This is his fourth front-row start of the year
and his first since June's Italian GP. Hofmann meanwhile is
confident he will be much more competitive tomorrow.
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 2nd fastest, 1m
56.441s
"At the end of yesterday's first practice session I felt like going
home but yesterday afternoon we made some crucial adjustments to our
settings that worked well. Then we had a big meeting in the evening
and decided to make a big change to the geometry. Today we
discovered that this radical change gave us a big improvement that
could also be useful in the future. This morning I was fastest on
race tyres and this afternoon we rode full-race distance and I did a
57.7, also on race tyres. We used a new rear today, softer than
yesterday's tyre and similar to last year's Brno tyre, but better. I
am really happy and confident because the bike and the tyres are
working well, so I expect a good race, though we will have to see
what happens. Of course, it's a pity not to have pole but at the end
of the session I preferred not to take big risks that might ruin all
our good work. Second fastest and on the front row is enough,
because no one remembers what happens on Saturday, it's the race
that matters."
ALEX HOFMANN, 14th fastest, 1m
57.906s
"Today was much better than yesterday, even if the results don't
really show it. Yesterday and this morning we couldn't work the way
we wanted because I got my first chance to run some proper laps on
my race rear tyre this afternoon which was a shame because I didn't
have so much time to work on race set-up with these tyres. Then
after that we were straight away into the soft qualifying tyres. We
will try to improve the bike a little tomorrow morning and I am
really looking forward to the race. I feel pretty confident because
I can make much bigger steps forward than the other guys. The
weekend didn't start the way we wanted, so let's hope it will finish
the way we want."
Temperatures: Ambient: 25 degrees. Track: 39 degrees |
