Ducati
Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Alex Hofmann
rode to dogged ninth- and 13th-place finishes in the
ninth round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship held
at a warm and muggy Donington Park yesterday afternoon.
Capirossi finished the race exhausted and in pain, due
to the chest injuries he sustained at Catalunya two
weeks ago. After struggling to 15th at Assen last
weekend, the Italian missed one practice session here
(Friday afternoon) in a bid to rest himself for today's
race but the 30-lap outing was still an endurance test
for him. Hofmann, riding his second race with the team
as substitute to Sete Gibernau, who broke a collarbone
at Catalunya, never quite found the pace he was aiming
for.
Capirossi now has almost two weeks in which to
recuperate from his injuries and get ready for the
German Grand Prix, round ten of this year's 17-event
MotoGP series. The team is also expecting Sete Gibernau
to be back in action in Germany.
LORIS CAPIROSSI, finished
9th: "Today was better than Assen but I am completely
finished. It was very hard because I couldn't ride the way I
want to ride. I tried to rest as much as possible here,
which interfered with my tyre choice. I was smiling when it
started raining this morning because I thought that would
help us on tyres, but we don't get to choose the weather!
After ten laps or so I started sliding around and also
feeling the pain, so I just tried to keep Randy (de Puniet)
behind me. Now we have two weeks before the next race, so I
hope I will arrive at the Sachsenring in good shape,
otherwise it will be another difficult weekend. We haven't
had the results we deserve at the last three races, we
deserve more than finishing eighth or ninth which makes me
sad."
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Members of Ducati Corse
with the Alfa Romeo Brera and 159 which were used as
official cars use by the Italian MotoGP bike team at
Donington Park over the weekend. |
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Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Alex
Hofmann (above) rode to dogged ninth- and 13th-place
finishes in the ninth round of the 2006 MotoGP World
Championship held at a warm and muggy Donington Park
yesterday afternoon. |
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ALEX HOFMANN, finished 13th: "We had problems all
weekend, our tyre wear was a little too much for race
distance, though we did improve tyre wear compared to the
first day. It was a difficult choice but I chose quite a
hard rear which initially didn't give me the feeling I
wanted. It was difficult to pick up the pace, then when I
did put in some strong laps and caught (Carlos) Checa, I
couldn't keep that pace because I lost some grip. I feel
pretty down because this will probably be my last race for
the reds and I wanted to do extra good, I wanted to do
improve on Assen but we had a tougher weekend here. Anyway,
we did our maximum and I'd like to say thanks to everyone
for giving me this chance."
LIVIO SUPPO, Ducati MotoGP
project manager: "That was another heroic ride from
Loris and thanks also to Alex for doing a good job at the
last two races. This was another difficult weekend because
Loris didn't do all of practice and Alex was still getting
used to the bike/tyre package. Last year this was a
difficult circuit for us, we've made a big step forward
since then but we still need more. Now we have a two-week
break, during which Loris should be able to get stronger and
we also expect Sete to be back with us. A big thank you to
our technical partners, in particular Shell Advance, for
their support during these difficult races."
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