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Last year's MotoGP was a one horse race. Not so this year...
Published in The Telegraph - 01/05/08 What's going on at Ducati? After winning the opener in Qatar, World Champion Casey Stoner took his worst result (11th) on the Italian bike in Jerez and barely managed sixth last time out in Estoril, though he clearly had problems. It's early in the season and both Stoner and Ducati would not have expected those rounds to be a walkover, but nor would they have expected things to go this badly after winning 10 rounds last season. However Ducati runs more than one rider and instead of revelling in its main man's success, should it have heeded the warning of Loris Capirossi? The three-times world champion, who scored seven wins for Ducati, is not only the wise godfather of the paddock but also one of the toughest nuts to crack, a seasoned racer who should have been able to meld with the bike. He simply couldn't work out its problems, however, and some even wrote him off for retirement, prematurely in my view. The fact remains that Ducati appears to have put all its eggs in one basket, with only Stoner able to make the bike perform. |