Motorcycles and news

MotoGP: Ducati’s Gibernau and Capirossi get to know new Laguna Seca July 23, 2006

Ducati Team riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi made their acquaintance with the revised and resurfaced Laguna Seca circuit this morning, completing the first session tenth and 12th fastest.

SETE GIBERNAU, tenth fastest, 1m 25.150s
“The track is much safer now, that’s the good point. The new surface is slippery, though new surfaces are always slippery so I’m sure it will get better over the weekend. It’s also really bumpy, I thought it would be smoother than before but it’s not. It’s especially bad coming out of the Corkscrew, but it’s like that for everyone. Our bike doesn’t like bumps too much, so we’ll get our heads down and see what we can do. The shoulder isn’t much different from last week, pain isn’t a problem but the strength isn’t there. I’ve just got to deal with that because I really want to ride hard and push as hard as I can, that’s my goal. Over the past few days we have iced it and massaged it to bring down the swelling, though there’s not much you can do in such a short time because you’ll end up stressing the shoulder.”

LORIS CAPIROSSI, 12th fastest, 1m 25.614s
“From a safety point of view the track is much better, especially at the first turn and at the Corkscrew, where the bike is much less in crisis than before. We can’t say the same about the surface, which seems even bumpier than before and also not very grippy. It seems like they have laid down some kind of resin in some places, not on the straights but at some corners. The surface at the Corkscrew looks like glass, which doesn’t give you confidence. We had some difficulties with our front tyres but we have others here which we think will be better and we will test them this afternoon. This is a very strange track, it’s pretty easy to improve your lap times here. Anyway, after lunch we’ll continue our work.”
MotoGP: Ducati's Gibernau and Capirossi get to know new Laguna Seca
FREE PRACTICE
1. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts 1′23.859;
2. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.266;
3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +0.335;
4. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda +0.364;
5. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Team Suzuki MotoGP +0.394;
6. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team +0.461;
7. Makoto Tamada (JPN) JIR Konica Minolta Honda +0.480;
8. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda +0.635;
9. Casey Stoner (AUS) LCR Honda +0.664;
10. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP +0.804;
11. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team +0.963;