Japanese GP: Ducati Friday notes

DUCATI MARLBORO MEN SET FAST PACE IN RACE TRIM

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau ended today's first two Japanese GP practice sessions seventh and 13th fastest. But the timesheets are somewhat misleading because neither the Italian nor the Spaniard used super-soft qualifying tyres today, unlike many of their rivals. Indeed both men are satisfied with their race pace, last year's Motegi winner Capirossi the only man to run consistently inside 1m 48s and Gibernau certain that he is starting to get to grips with a circuit that he has always found difficult to master.

Loris Capirossi, Ducati Marlboro Team, 7th fastest, 1m 47.731s
"I'm very happy with what we've done today and with my race pace. I think we've been the best because I've done a lot of fast laps on race tyres. This afternoon I tried two new Bridgestone rears. The first I used for only a few laps, but I did a lot of laps on the second. My rhythm was very fast with that tyre, there's no doubt I'm the only one who has done 1m 47.7s with race tyres, so my seventh place doesn't reflect my real potential. I don't understand why everyone is in such a hurry to use qualifying tyres! I hope the weather stays fine because I know we can improve our settings some more. I want to say a big thank you to my team. We have such a good relationship - they quickly understand what I say and understand what I need to go faster. We started today with two different set-ups, this afternoon mixed the positive aspects of each. The bike is good, the tyres are good and I'm ready to really use them!"

Sete Gibernau, Ducati Marlboro Team, 13th fastest, 1m 48.313s
"This is a track where I've never felt too confident, so today I just tried to stay out on race tyres to learn and to see what kind of direction we need to go in. Both sessions went okay, I feel like I'm starting to understand what I've got to do to go fast here, I just needed laps and it seemed like a waste of time to try a qualifier, even though it seems like that's what everyone does these days. What I need to do for this track is adapt my braking, I think I am using the bike quite well but I think my braking is a little too long, so I need to brake for a shorter time. Braking is very important here. We tried different set-ups in both my bikes today and now we are trying to use half of one set-up and half the other for tomorrow. I think that should be pretty good, we'll se what happens..."

Afternoon session temperatures. Ambient: 24 degrees Track: 29 degrees

-credit: www.ducati.com