Loris: 'Qualifying vital'

A good performance in race simulations during tests last week won’t translate to a good race showing if he can’t qualify well, says Ducati’s Loris Capirossi after problems using qualifiers in the test.

One big area of concern for Capirossi centred around Bridgestone’s soft qualifying rubber at the test. He was only seventh fastest on a qualifier, 0.7s faster than his best time on race rubber – unusual for Capirossi who is normally a devastating one-lap specialist. 

Alarmingly his time was a massive 1.4s slower than Dani Pedrosa’s outright test best time on Michelin’s qualifying tyre, and he said: “We must improve because all the effort we put in to be competitive for the race could be undone if we are starting way down the grid.”