Loris Capirossi has set his sights on the podium at the French MotoGP race this weekend, despite not liking the Le Mans track. Maybe he can stop Valentino Rossi from dominating.
Loris Capirossi has set his sights on the podium at the Le Mans MotoGP race this weekend, despite not liking the track. Maybe he can stop Valentino Rossi from dominating.
Capirossi scored his first MotoGP pole at Jerez earlier this month, but crashed out after damaging his Ducati. He did not finish in South Africa either.
“What happened at Jerez was unlucky, but at least I wasn’t badly hurt in the crash,” said Capirossi. “I’m not happy to have scored zero points from the last two races, so I badly want a good result at Le Mans. I shall be aiming for the podium.”
But he’s not wild about the track. “I have to say that Le Mans isn’t one of my favourite circuits. I’ve won a 250 GP there (in 1994) but I’ve never really enjoyed it since I moved to the big class,” he said.
“It’s not a bad track, but it’s not so interesting for riders; it’s just accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake, accelerate… The good thing is that we have a lot of horsepower, which will be very useful coming out of the slow corners, but we still need to do some more work on braking stability,” said Capirossi.
Camel Pramac Pons rider Max Biaggi called the Le Mans “complicated”.
“Le Mans, which is run over part of the legendary 24-hour race track, is a tremendously complicated race, during which you must maintain concentration throughout because a minor distraction can prove disastrous,” Biaggi said.
“It is extremely important at this circuit to have a bike that is stable under braking and with good traction on the exit of the corners. I head into this race with a lot of optimism and my aim is to battle once again for the victory.”
Meanwhile, the Telefonica MoviStar Gresini Honda team has said that 20-year old Japanese rider Ryuichi Kiyonari (pictured) will replace the late Daijiro Kato for the remainder of the 2003 MotoGP season. He starts with this weekend’s French Grand Prix at Le Mans.
“He’s a young and talented rider and we’ve got lots of time to build up a strong relationship. With more experience he should be one of MotoGP’s top riders,” said team manager Fausto Gresini.
