News

"I am disappointed because it would have been fantastic to win here in front of the Spanish fans. We didn't need the Race 1 crash. I was pushing hard to close the gap between me and the leader and I slipped. I was slowly catching them and so I'm sorry because it could have been a great race. I don't know if I would have been able to win but I wanted to at least catch them. Anyway this is racing and I was lucky to be able to take part in race 2, despite some shoulder pain. This was a lesson today and I will learn from it."

For the second race, the Althea Ducati man opted for a different choice of tyre but, due to a poor start, was in a similar situation to race 1, trying to make up ground on the leading pair. When his bike started to lose grip, Checa settled for third. The result lost him 29 points in the title chase, but Carlos is still leading the table on 261 points, 43 ahead of Biaggi and 66 over Melandri.

"We changed the tyre for Race 2 and this was an intelligent decision but I wasn't able to close the gap that opened between me and the leaders. In the final stages the bike began to move around and I couldn't gain any more ground. I am however satisfied. We know that we're in great shape, me, the team, the bike and we'll go to the next round at Brno where we'll continue to fight for race wins and for the championship."