DUCATI MAKES MXGP DEBUT

Ducati made its debut in the MXGP World Championship in Holland with Tony Cairoli on board the prototype Ducati MX machine. The nine-time World Champion, who has been absent from the GPs for the last three years, finished Saturday’s Qualifying Race with a solid seventh place after running in fourth for a long time, confirming the off road chops of the Desmo450 MX.

Come the first Race on Sunday, Tony was unable to get away well at the start and finished the race in fifteenth position, while Race 2 saw Cairoli climb to ninth position, setting excellent lap times (6th fastest on the day) but was forced to retire with a technical problem during the sixth lap.

“We bring home an excellent test for the bike. Before the GP we did three weeks of testing between Holland and Belgium but the conditions of today’s track were very far from those found in the various tests. Our goal was to test the Desmo450 MX in extreme conditions and I had very positive feelings. Yesterday, in the Qualifying Race, we got a very good seventh place, which is a fantastic result for such a young bike. On Sunday I didn’t get a good start in both heats, but in Race 2 I was in the top 10 and so I’m satisfied. After three years away from the GPs it was definitely not an easy race for me, especially on a difficult track like this”. – Antonio Cairoli

Racing the Dutch GP is part of the Desmo450 MX development plan, the bike that will take part in next year’s MXGP World Championship and go into production, marking the Borgo Panigale company’s entry into the motocross world. The Arnhem race allowed Ducati engineers to collect other valuable data on the difficult sand track to support the development of the Desmo450 MX.

The development programme continues on August 31st and September 1st at Castiglione del Lago, in the fifth round of the Italian Championship, where Alessandro Lupino leads the general classification with two rounds to go after the brilliant results obtained in the last round of the Italian MX Championship at Ponte a Egola.