The Ducati Marlboro Team had a bittersweet day one at Phillip Island, Carlos Checa running a close second fastest in the opening two practice sessions, Loris Capirossi ending his weekend when he crashed heavily in this morning's session. The Italian was taken to a local hospital where tests revealed minor internal bleeding.

"We're really sorry for Loris, we wish him a speedy recovery," said Ducati MotoGP project manager Livio Suppo. "It's a real shame for him because we know he was so keen to secure second place in the World Championship. In Loris' absence, Carlos did a very good job today. He tested several different tyres and was consistently fast throughout this afternoon. It was a bit of a strange session, with more than a second covering the first five riders, so I think we can be very happy with our pace. It seems that our tyre/bike package works very well here, so it's disappointing for Loris that he won't be able to enjoy that for the rest of the weekend."

CHECA A CLOSE SECOND FASTEST
Carlos Checa played an impressive lone role for the Ducati Marlboro Team this afternoon, clocking second fastest time of the day, just 0.27 seconds behind World Champion Valentino Rossi. The next rider was almost four tenths slower than Checa around this super-fast track.
"I'm quite satisfied so far," said Checa. "We did a good job all day, focusing on race set-up. We didn't even use qualifying tyres at the end of the afternoon because we lost some time in the morning because the track was damp for the first few minutes, so we wanted to devote all our time to race settings and race tyre choice. We have some clear conclusions from the tyre tests we've done, we are going in the right direction, so if we can continue like this the result will come. The Desmosedici definitely likes this track - it is fast and it's stable, which is what you need here."

CAPIROSSI OUT FOR THE WEEKEND
Loris Capirossi will take no further part in this year's Australian GP following a high-speed crash at the 200kmh Turn One during the latter stages of this morning's first practice session, run in cool and windy conditions. Although an initial examination by the Clinica Mobile revealed no broken bones, it was later deemed necessary to take Capirossi to a private hospital in Dandenong, about 70km from the Phillip Island track.
"Loris felt generally okay after the crash, but after a while he felt some pain in his chest, so he was driven to Dandenong," said Livio Suppo. "He underwent a scan that showed he had some internal bleeding in his right lung. He is having that bleeding drained and is expected to stay in hospital for two to three days. We wish him well and hope he gets better very soon."