| Just picked this up from Crash Net:-
Ducati Marlboro rider Loris Capirossi made no fewer than 11 laps under the official Motegi lap record on his way to the second fastest time, during Friday free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Capirossi was over half a second ahead of the field for much of this afternoon's second free practice session, but Suzuki's John Hopkins would edge ahead by 0.101secs, on soft tyres, in the dying seconds.
"I am really very pleased with the job we did today and we started working well with the tyres this morning," said Capirossi, who was 0.101secs slower than Suzuki's John Hopkins. "We continued that in the afternoon session and in all regards we worked in the best way we have done this year.
"The rhythm is fantastic and I did my best lap of 1'48.053 after ten laps on the same tyres. I went out again on the same rubber and did a mid-1'48. Not bad at all for the first day," he added with considerable understatement.
"Loris had a unbelievable session here today," said Ducati MotoGP Project Manager Livio Suppo. "He was consistently very fast and his rhythm is unbelievable. He did almost half a session with the same back tyre.
"We can say that the package works very well and thanks to Bridgestone, they have made an unbelievable job. Carlos (Checa – ninth) is struggling a little bit more with the set-up of the bike, but this morning was very good, so let's see for tomorrow. We are confident."
The top three riders today were all on Bridgestone tyres and Sunday's race could well be Ducati's best chance of a second ever MotoGP victory.  |