Loris Capirossi attempted a return to action during this morning’s free practice at Sachsenring after sustaining rib and shoulder injuries during qualifying at the Assen GP, and after testing his physical condition and finishing last and 3.5 seconds off pace, has decided to pull out the German GP.

The Pramac rider, who is expected to make an announcement regarding whether he’ll retire or not at the Brno round in mid-August, will be substituted by Sylvain Guintoli, who was already on standby in the event that Capirex couldn’t ride, despite the Italian’s “only I ride my Desmosedici” words.

Guintoli, who was a Pramac rider back in 2008 before turning to Superbikes, has already tested the Ducati GP11 during the official MotoGP tests at Mugello on July 4th, where he refreshed his knowledge of MotoGP machine and finished five seconds from Casey Stoner during the test.

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Loris Capirossi will be making an ahead of schedule return to take part in the upcoming German GP at Sachsenring, despite not being totally fit.

The Italian rider missed the Assen and Mugello races after sustaining rib and shoulder injuries during qualifying at Assen, and was expected to also miss the Sachsenring and Laguna Seca rounds after Pramac Ducati announced that they were going to field Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli as his replacement rider and even giving their former rider an opportunity to test the GP11 during the official MotoGP tests at Mugello last Monday.

“I feel better, but my physical condition is still not acceptable,” said Capirex. “I’m doing daily physical therapy sessions at the medical center IM2S of Monaco. I already missed two races, that Mugello the most important for me. I want to ride my bike as soon as possible.”

Capirossi will still have to pass the medical commission’s physical and if he’ll actually be able to ride remains to be seen, so Guintoli will probably remain on standby.

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Pramac Ducati has confirmed that WSBK rider Sylvain Guintoli will be testing for the team at Mugello tomorrow (which will not see any 2012 factory bike testing) in the event that Loris Capirossi is unable to recover from his injuries in time for the upcoming Sachsenring and Laguna Seca rounds, and they’ve also announced that Andrea Iannone will also be getting a chance to test the GP11 tomorrow.

Ducati has often allowed lower class riders to test their GP bikes in order to get a taste of MotoGP (while checking them out as potential material), and since Iannone is expected to make the big switch to the premier class with his own CRT team next season, the test will give him some interesting comparisons to make with his future bike.

“I’m sorry that Loris wasn’t able to be with us this weekend at Mugello. Sylvain Guintoli, an old acquaintance of the Pramac Racing Team, will take his place tomorrow,” said Pramac boss, Paolo Campinoti. “The test will help Sylvain in case Capirex isn’t recovered in time to race at the Sachsenring or Laguna Seca, but we’re hopeful that Loris will return soon.We’re also pleased to welcome Andrea Iannone, who will test our bike in order to get used to the MotoGP class.”

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This weekend’s MotoGP starting grid at the Mugello GP will see only sixteen riders on track, as Loris Capirossi will be forced to miss this eighth race of the season due to the injuries he picked up in last week’s high side crash during the qualifying session at Assen.

A further medical check-up has confirmed that the veteran MotoGP rider who was initially reported as having sustained a dislocated right shoulder and injured rib cartilage, has now been diagnosed with fractures to his ninth and tenth ribs, which will rule him out of his home race for the first time in his career.

“I’m obviously very disappointed and angry. I was hoping I could do to get on track for this race, but the double fracture of the ninth and tenth ribs and distorting the AC joint injury forced me to raise the white flag for the first time in my career for Mugello,” stated a disappointed Capirossi. “I’m sorry for the many fans who will be at Mugello, the track to which they are emotionally closest. I have many fond memories of this track, I wanted to turn my season in this circuit. Now I will have to rest, sit still for at least two weeks and try to get back on track as soon as possible”.

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Veteran MotoGP rider Loris Capirossi has been ruled out of tomorrow’s race at Assen, following a viscious highside in the final minutes of today’s qualifying session.

The Pramac Ducati rider crashed out and was hit by his own bike and sustained a dislocated right shoulder and injured rib cartilage (and not broken ribs as his manager Carlo Pernat previously reported) which will force him to sit out the race.

“There’s not much to say. It’s not much fun to be crushed by a bike at high speed. I’m feeling better now, although I’m sorry to miss tomorrow’s race,” said Capirex. “I crashed as I was at my best; I could have dropped my time, but the problem in left-hand corners, which we had already experienced in the morning’s free-practice session, caused me to lose control. Tomorrow I’ll go back to Monte Carlo, and in two days I’ll undergo some more checks on my physical condition.”

Most of today’s crashes have been due to the left side of the rear tire not generating enough heat and Bridgestone had warned the riders and teams that this could be a problem this weekend with the lower than expected temperatures at Assen.

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That scrappy Loris Capirossi isn’t pleased with his results so far this season is a big understatement and he’s even getting beat by a rookie like Karel Abraham on the same satellite Ducati who has less a racing pedigree than he has.

This interview was done at the Assen circuit ahead of this this weekend’s GP where the Pramac Ducati team received some new parts according to the Italian, but evidently didn’t work out too well because in this morning’s free practice Capirossi was only 15th and a mere o.025s faster than Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, while team mate Randy de Puniet was 17th and more than two tenths slower.

It was hypothesized by some commentators that the Pramac team could receive at Laguna Seca, Valentino Rossi’s and Nicky Hayden’s GP11 step 2 bikes. Check out the video.

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Between Paris Hilton escorted aound the paddock and pitlane and her Tweets with “I love MotoGP”, Marco Simoncelli’s body guards in mufti (who had their ‘15 minutes of fame’ when they were shown to world on TV), the riders not wanting to go to Japan, the rumors why Dani Pedrosa didn’t race, why Colin Edwards wanted to, and other tidbits from the weekend’s races at Catalunya another rumor surfaced at Montmelò, but this was strictly more racing oriented.

Apparently Pramac Racing who has been running Ducati Desmosedici’s since 2005, is thinking of dropping the Italian manufacturer at the end of season and lease Honda’s new 2012 prototype, and the Tuscany based team is also thinking of down sizing the team to a sole rider, which won’t make Carmelo Ezpeleta jump for joy.

Both Randy de Puniet and Loris Capirossi have struggled so far this season with GP11 (as have the factory riders). But with Capirex seriously thinking of hanging up his lid at the end of the year (we should hear about his decision during the Mugello GP) putting de Puniet back on a Honda and concentrating all their efforts on just one rider, could be a step in the right direction towards improving their situation.

And Ducati? They probably won’t be wringing their hands over the loss, Aspar Martinez wants a second Ducati to field and it seems that the Cardion AB Motoracing team also wants another Ducati, because they too are thinking of expanding their team to a two rider effort.

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This morning’s free practice at Estoril on a damp and slippery track was for most of the riders was done halfheartedly with more or less the attitude of ‘if we have to’ let’s put in some laps without taking to many risks, with several riders electing to sit it out until the last five minutes of the practice.

Due to the dampness, lap times were more than 9 seconds off of yesterday’s times and the surprise of the session was that Loris Capirossi on his Pramac Ducati ended up being the fastest rider after putting in an impressive run of fast laps, at least for a track in these conditions.

Taking second was Jorge Lorenzo who was a half of a second from the veteran Italian rider in a not to serious last lap lunge, while Nicky Hayden also in a last lunge took the third spot from team mate Valentino Rossi, but he was 1.440s from Capirossi.

Continue reading: MotoGP Estoril: Damp FP3 sees Loris Capirossi take the lead

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The Pramac Ducati team has been particularly unfortunate in these last two MotoGP rounds, Randy de Puniet crashed out both in Qatar and Jerez, while Loris Capirossi was clipped by his own team mate in the season opener, and had to grit his teeth to finish in 11th in Spain with continuing shoulder pain and a defective spark plug on his Ducati.

The Italian had already undergone surgery to fix some sort of nerve problem in his right shoulder between Qatar and the Jerez rounds, but apparently the problem wasn’t completely solved or the recovery time was too short, because further medical tests revealed that he is suffering from inflammation to his tendon and muscle.

“I have to say that checkups I went through were positive. Yesterday I had the artro tac, which showed that tendon and muscle have reported a injury. Fortunately there is nothing broken. Now I will work hard, twice a day, trying to get off the inflammation. I want to heal at all costs, for Estoril I hope to reach at least 80-85% of physical condition.” said the veteran MotoGP rider.

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Italy invented the terms prima donna and diva to celebrate female opera singers, but I don’t think the words were supposed to be used in the same sentence with professional, high profile motorcycle racers, but unfortunately in this case they are.

As you already know, the Biaggi-Melandri hand bag/squabble/debate, whatever you want to call it, is absolutely raging over here in Italy and naturally everyone from the cleaning woman to a couple of MotoGP riders, have to give their opinion on the matter, especially if their asked to do so by sports journalists.

Loris Capirossi was asked what he thought of the incident by Sky Sport 24 and he said,“I believe that we can do without quarrels and that the sport comes before all this. We should all be friends because basically we’re very lucky to do what we like and we get paid for it. Marco left MotoGP in a controversy, attacking Valentino Rossi, the teams he rode with and myself. He was lucky enough to get into Superbikes through the front door, so he should avoid cheap controversy. I know both of them well, and I can say that Max has been in Superbikes for four years and hasn’t had any trouble with anyone. And now there’s another Italian and there’s already problems during the second round, maybe someone was looking for controversy.”

While Marco Simoncelli talking to Virgin Radio also gave his two cents: “Personally I think if someone is envious, that’s Melandri. What Valentino may have said (about Superbikes) was right, and it wasn’t meant to be derogatory, but the level is a little lower and at the end all the riders that leave MotoGP, go there and win, so the rider level is slightly lower. This isn’t derogatory, it’s statistical. I always watch the Superbike races and I have a lot fun, but I’ve raced there and to me the category is a little easier.

Source | repubblica.it

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MotoGP veteran Loris Capirossi has undergone surgery on his right arm on Wednesday according to Sportmediaset.

The Pramac Ducati rider was clipped by team mate Randy de Puniet on the first lap of the Qatar race, and then had to retire two laps later due to pain in his left hand, but fortunately had no broken bones, just some heavy bruising. However undergoing further medical tests as soon as he returned home, did reveal that he was suffering from nerve lesion to his right arm that he probably picked up as a result of last year’s crash at Phillip Island and immediately underwent surgery to correct the problem.

Capirossi should be fit enough to take part in the second round of the season at Jerez.

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Pramac Racing will be celebrating their 10th year in MotoGP this season and to celebrate the event have put together this little video with all the riders they’ve had.

Pramac Racing started in 2002 and has gone under several names, including Camel Honda, Pramac d’Antin (remember the gossip surrounding Luis d’Antin after his resigning during the Sachsenring GP in 2008), Alice Team and has used Honda’s and Ducati’s (the biggest suppliers on the grid) from the Honda NSR500 with Tetsuya Harada, to the Honda RC211V with Makoto Tamada and Max Biaggi, before switching to Ducati which saw Roberto Rolfo, Alex Hofmann, José Luís Cardoso, Alex Barros, Toni Elias, Sylvain Guintoli, Mika Kallio and Niccolò Canepa and Aleix Espargaro all riding for the satellite team.

This year the team has a complete different rider line-up with Randy de Puniet and Loris Capirossi, who will be taking on the 2011 season.

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