Ducati back on home soil

From Marlboro Ducati

The Ducati Marlboro Team will race on home soil and in front of its fans for the second time this season when the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini gets underway this weekend at Misano.

Thousands of Ducatisti will once again make their presence felt on Sunday as they take over the grandstand in turn one, the "Variante Parco," providing crucial backing to the Italian factory.

Both Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri are in the mood to put on a show for them, especially after the results of a recent test session at Brno, where the Australian found a setting that allowed him to go even faster than he had done in the previous round of the series while the Italian also made some encouraging progress.

In 2007 the pair both performed well at Misano, with Stoner taking a stunning victory from pole position and Melandri coming through from 12th on the grid to take fourth place at the flag.

"Over the past five rounds Casey has shown incredible speed from the opening practice session at a variety of circuits and even though he hasn't got the points to show for it, he's in outstanding form and we're sure he'll also be on the pace at Misano," said Livio Suppo, MotoGP project director.

"The team and the engineers back at the factory are working non-stop on continuing development of the GP8 and offering all our riders a highly-competitive package, as shown by an excellent podium for Toni Elias at Brno."

The Misano Autodrome was built in the early 1970s, measuring a mere 3.488km in its original form. In 1993 it was extended to 4.060km before further modifications between 1996 and 1998 saw the pit garage and paddock complex extended and updated.

The biggest changes to the circuit took place in 2006, when the track was lengthened to 4.180km and radically reversed from clockwise to anti-clockwise. The biggest changes to the corners were at Rio and Carro.

In general it is a tight track, characterized by a prevalence of slow corners - other than the fast and extremely demanding 'Curvone' right-hander.