Guareschi and Domenicali in agreement over improvements

The Gran Premio d’Italia TIM saw the Ducati Marlboro team take a fourth place again; the fourth successive time they have done so this season. At Mugello it was Casey Stoner who took the position as he tried a different front suspension on his Desmosedici GP10, whilst team-mate Nicky Hayden crashed out on lap five with a front-end issue.

The team may have been expecting more from their home race and it has been a difficult start to the campaign for Stoner, who suffered two non-finishes himself before Mugello. However, the management duo of Vittoriano Guareschi and Claudio Domenicali are both confident and envisage an improvement.

“We had a big problem this weekend because we put a new fork in the bike, and we worked a lot to improve and develop this new part,” explained Guareschi. “At the end of the weekend we took fourth position. It’s not a podium but it’s a good result and it’s the best position this year for Casey.”

General Director of Ducati Domenicali added: “A fourth place at Mugello is obviously not totally satisfactory for us but it was a good race nevertheless, especially at the end. Casey showed his character, he knew he didn’t have the pace to fight for the podium so he waited for the right moment to secure the best possible result.”

“For some reason, which we are going to analyse, he didn’t have the grip we expected him to have after the changes we made this morning but he definitely got the best out of what he had.”

The team will now aim to continue its improvement at the next round at Silverstone, the AirAsia British Grand Prix which takes place from June 18th-20th.