Second place for Loris Capirossi
28/08/2005
Season’s best for Bridgestone and Ducati
Loris Capirossi stormed to a fantastic second place in today’s Czech Grand Prix aboard his Bridgestone-fitted Ducati Desmosedici, raking in a long-deserved reward for the relentless efforts in the development of both his MotoGP machine and the Japanese racing tyres.
The Italian hero had started with a bang into the weekend, clocking fastest in the first free practice session on Friday, before confirming the re-gained strength of his Ducati Marlboro Team in the qualifying session on Saturday, when he put a string of 16 ultra-fast consecutive laps together, and finally pushed his four-cylinder machine to third place on the starting grid.Newly developed rear tyres with increased durability made all the difference, and the expectations mounted for the race on Sunday.
However, there was a lot of work ahead of Capirossi, when he dropped back at the start and finished the first lap down in seventh position. But with another strong and steady performance, the 32-year-old moved up through the ranks, overtaking his team-mate Carlos Checa, then Honda riders Alex Barros, Marco Melandri, and Max Biaggi. Third on the penultimate lap, Capirossi eventually took advantage when Spaniard Sete Gibernau dropped out with a fuel management system failure on his factory Honda.Capirossi’s team-mate Carlos Checa, who had qualified in seventh position, finished a strong but lonely ride in eighth position. After dropping out from final practice with fatigue, Suzuki star Kenny Roberts showed a quick recovery and rode the fastest Suzuki to 11th place, ahead of Kawasaki rider Shinya Nakano in 12th, John Hopkins in 13th, Alex Hofmann in 15th and Suzuki test rider Nobu Aoki in 16th place.
Loris Capirossi- Ducati Marlboro Team- 2nd position
“I wasn’t too happy with my start, because normally I’m first or second off the line, and today I was down in sixth or seventh position. But I wasn’t worried either, because we were fast in qualifying, and we had also done long practice runs on race tyres and fine-tuned our race set-up, so I knew that I was able to go fast and consistent again. Even though I couldn’t catch the others on the straights because my bike wasn’t quite as quick as usual, I gained position by position. Third would have been my place today, but I was lucky in the end to get second when Sete dropped out. Now I have a lot of confidence for the remaining part of the season, because both the bike and the tyres are getting better and better. The Bridgestone guys did an amazing job for this race, the tyres were really competitive!”
Yutaka Yamaguchi- Director MotoGP Tyre Development- Bridgestone Motorsport
"Today’s second place finish confirmed the positive step that we have taken in our MotoGP tyre development program. Our staff did an excellent job over the summer break and we are now quite confident for the races to come. Congratulations to Loris Capirossi and the Ducati Marlboro Team for a job well done, as we have all worked tirelessly together in our partnership. We now look forward to our home GP at Motegi where we aim to achieve even better results.”
Bridgestone Results:
2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati, 43.58,376, 8. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati, 44.15,870, 11. Kenny Roberts (USA) Suzuki, 44.24,223, 12. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki, 44.24,342, 13. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki, 44.24,817, 15. Alex Hofmann (GER) Kawasaki, 44.26,307, 16. Nobuatsu Aoki (JPN) Suzuki, 44.38,317