Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Alex Hofmann rode to dogged ninth- and 13th-place finishes at warm and muggy Donington Park this 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 Gibernau to be back in action in Germany.
Loris Capirossi, Finished 9th, 5th Overall (107 Points)"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."
Alex Hofmann, Finished 13th, 16th Overall (19 Points)"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".
Temperatures: Ambient: 27 degrees
Track: 45 degrees.
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