| The Ducati Marlboro Team goes into
the 2006 season finale aiming to end MotoGP's 990cc era on a high by
adding to its haul of race wins and podium finishes. Loris Capirossi
will race at Valencia alongside former team-mate Troy Bayliss
because Sete Gibernau is unfit to ride following further treatment
to the collarbone he broke at June's Catalan GP and damaged again at
the recent Portuguese GP. Bayliss contested the 2003 and 2004 MotoGP
championships with the Ducati Marlboro Team and won his second World
Superbike title with Ducati earlier this month.
The 2006 season has been the Ducati
Marlboro Team's most successful since it first entered the MotoGP
World Championship in 2003. Capirossi has doubled his previous
number of victories for the team by taking three wins (at Jerez,
Brno and Motegi) plus four further podiums, two pole positions (at
Jerez and Motegi) and four fastest laps.
In contesting the final 990cc
MotoGP event Bayliss will ‘bookend' the public life of Ducati's
990cc Desmosedici because he also gave the V4 its first public
outing at the 2002 Valencia GP, riding a few demo laps alongside
Ducati test rider Vittoriano Guareschi. Both Bayliss and Capirossi
have scored podium finishes on the Desmosedici at Valencia,
Capirossi taking third in 2003, Bayliss third the following year.
LORIS CAPIROSSI, Ducati Marlboro
Team rider, 4th overall, 209 points
"Estoril was a bad weekend for us but the prevoious four races were
amazing, the bike and the tyres working really well, so we hope that
we will be in similar shape at Valencia so we can once again fight
for the podium. Valencia is such a strange racetrack, like a go-kart
track which makes it very tough on a MotoGP bike. The Valencia
weekend is never easy because the circuit is very unusual, with many
slow-speed corners that lead into each other and very few
right-handers. It's maybe not the ideal racetrack for MotoGP bikes,
though it seems a lot of fun on a 125 or a 250. Looking at the year
overall, we've had some great moments and some bad moments. I think
the big first-turn crash at Barcelona lost us the chance of winning
the title, but I don't think about it any more, I think only of the
present and of the future. I understand that this is the correct
attitude because I have been racing in GPs for 17 years and during
those years I have made many mistakes, but you must always move on,
don't dwell on the past".
TROY BAYLISS, Ducati Marlboro Team
rider
"The only way I can put it is that I appreciate the opportunity that
has been given to me to race at Valencia with the Ducati Marlboro
Team. I feel sorry of course for Sete, who won't be able to race in
his home GP, but it sort of makes sense that I have been called to
replace him. I was there at the start of the whole Ducati MotoGP
project four years ago, the decision just fell into place and I am
sure there are lots of people in the Company and lots of fans who
want to see me at Valencia. My season has finished and I have this
great opportunity now so it's nice for all concerned and it'll also
be great to join up again with some of my old team and mechanics.
I feel really good it's Valencia, because it's a track I know like
the back of my hand and I've always had good results there. I'll be
thrown in at the deep end and won't have much time for practice but
I know the bike pretty well. The only thing I won't have tried are
the Bridgestone, but we'll take it step by step and see how it goes
from there".
LIVIO SUPPO, Ducati MotoGP project
manager
"We are really sorry that once again Sete isn't fit to race, it's a
real shame. For Loris, we hope he can finish the season by claiming
third place overall, which will be our best result in the riders'
championship. We hope he can have another great race, like the races
he has had this year at Jerez, Motegi, Brno, Mugello, Sepang and so
on. We count on the team and on Bridgestone to give him all the
support he needs to get the result he deserves. Finally, a big
welcome back to Troy. He was the first guy to ride the Desmosedici
in public here in Valencia in 2002 and now he will ride the bike in
its last race. Once we realised that Sete wasn't fit we invited Troy
to race to celebrate his second Superbike title with us. We just
want him to enjoy the weekend because although there will be a lot
of expectation upon him, it won't be easy. He is riding a bike and
tyres that he's not familiar with and he will be racing against guys
who have been on their bikes all year."
THE TRACK
Valencia is one of five anti-clockwise MotoGP circuits and the
second-slowest GP circuit with a lap record of just 154.9kmh, a
fraction slower than Laguna Seca and marginally faster than Estoril.
Most of the track's corners are slow, in-and-out turns, grouped
closely together, this unusual layout affording spectators a mostly
unobstructed view of the entire circuit - a real rarity in the world
of motorsport. It's an immensely physical circuit with riders
afforded little rest between bouts of heavy acceleration, braking
and cornering.
This weekend Valencia hosts its
eighth Grand Prix after featuring on the World Championship calendar
for the first time in 1999. The venue is officially christened the
Ricardo Tormo circuit, in honour of the late Spanish rider, a former
50cc World Champion. |
