The Ducati Marlboro Team have hailed Loris Capirossi's second place in Sunday's French Grand Prix as an "unbelievable job" - claiming that "he made the difference".

source: crash.net

After qualifying sixth in Saturday's qualifying session, Capirossi surprised the MotoGP paddock by declaring "we cannot win tomorrow" and, while that statement was technically correct, Loris came within 1.9secs of proving himself wrong.

Capirossi emerged from the first chicane in fourth position, where he remained for much of the race, before being promoted to third when Valentino Rossi's machine stopped on lap 21 of 28.

Loris then spent the last five laps hunting down a fading Dani Pedrosa; the Desmosedici rider pushing his way past the young Spaniard halfway around the final lap - then repulsed a last turn counterattack to finish less than two-seconds from race winner Marco Melandri.