US GP: Ducati race notes

The Ducati Team today ended a difficult weekend with a double top-ten result at searing-hot Laguna Seca, Loris Capirossi coming home eighth, team-mate Sete Gibernau in tenth as temperatures nudged 40 degrees. The race was a gruelling endurance test for men, machines and tyres, especially for Capirossi and Gibernau who never managed to get the best out of their bike/tyre package at this unusual racetrack. More then 3.000 ducatisti watched at the race from Ducati Island tribune.

LORIS CAPIROSSI, finished eighth, fifth overall

"I think I rode a good race, a very good race considering what we had at our disposal. It was impossible for me to do better than this. I never gave up, I passed Sete and Tamada, built a gap and then controlled that gap to the end. I used harder tyres than I had used all weekend, the front was okay, the rear went down mid-race, but overall they were okay. I am glad I finished and got some points. I just hope that this is our last tough race and that the difficult part of the season is over."

SETE GIBERNAU, finished tenth, 13th overall

"It's been the same all weekend, we haven't been able to adjust our bike/tyre package to this track. It was one of those races which I just wanted to end because my shoulder (Gibernau broke his left collarbone last month) wasn't good. It was done after eight laps and I didn't want to ride with anyone else because I was struggling to get the bike stopped. Anyway, we're done now and we're going home for the summer break, when we can get our heads down and analyse what we've done here. It's not going to be much of a holiday for me because I've got to work very hard to get my physical condition back to where it should be."

FEDERICO MINOLI, Ducati Motor Holding CEO and president

"Considering our performance in practice, the race went better than we had expected. It is never fair to be happy with other riders' misfortune but a little of that definitely helped us today."

LIVIO SUPPO, Ducati MotoGP project manager

"It's been a very difficult weekend. This is a very particular racetrack and we weren't able to put it all together here. But both rides gave it their best despite everything and with some other riders having problems we got some decent points. We have to think positive, go home and analyse the data to understand why we weren't fast here, when we know we can be very fast at more normal racetracks. Thanks as always to our technical partners, first of all to Shell Advance, for their support."

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