Ducati sauve les meubles

[FracK]

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Carlos Checa and Loris Capirossi made an injury-blighted start to the 2005 MotoGP season at Jerez today, riding courageously to tenth and 13th positions. Checa, suffering from a recent shoulder injury, was even uncertain that he would be strong enough to finish the race. Capirossi meanwhile needed pain-killing injections to race with the ankle injury he sustained yesterday.
"A big thank you to Carlos and Loris, it must have been a very tough day for both of them," said Ducati Corse CEO Claudio Domenicali. "Of course, their injuries didn't make things easier for the team as a whole, plus we have had a busy weekend testing our new engine-braking control system. In the end we decided to race with the standard system because after warm-up we found that the bikes had suffered excessive chain stretch when the riders made their usual practice starts. We hadn't encountered this problem during testing with the new system. We stay here to test tomorrow, after which we will decide which system to use at Estoril next weekend."


CHECA BATTLES TO TENTH WITH WEAK SHOULDER
Carlos Checa ran strong during the early stages of today's race, riding in the thick of a frantic skirmish for sixth spot until he began to slip back, troubled by his still-weak left shoulder, the legacy of a fall during tests at Catalunya last month. Although the injury is not painful, it drastically reduces upper-body strength, making bike control difficult, to say the very least.
"To be honest, I didn't even expect to finish the race," said Checa. "At first things weren't too bad, but then Tamada made contact with me while trying to pass on the brakes. That hurt the shoulder again, then Barros and Bayliss came past and I couldn't stay with Biaggi and Edwards when they attacked. Physically and technically it's been a tough weekend, so all things considered, this isn't such a bad result."


CAPIROSSI SCORES DESPITE ANKLE INJURY
Loris Capirossi won three points for his pains this afternoon, battling to control his Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP5 with a cracked bone in his left ankle, sustained during a nasty highside crash yesterday morning.
"My thanks to the Clinica Mobile who made it possible for me to race," said the gritty Italian who had started from the second row of the grid. "I did my best but unfortunately I wasn't able to ride the bike the way I like to ride it. I had problems shifting gears and so I made a few mistakes. I tried as hard as I could and I managed to finish. The result isn't great but two or three points are always better than none."