Capirossi happy to be back on the pace

The Italian struggled in the opening two races of 2007 - crashing in Qatar and finishing a muted 12th in Spain. But he believes he is now coming to terms with the style required by the new 800cc bikes.

"I'm glad I'm back to riding the bike in the right way. I'm very happy," he told Italia1 television.

"We'll see how it goes in the next races, but I think I'll be able to find more and more feeling.

"With the 1000cc bikes we had a lot of torque, so I could be quick. With these 800cc bikes we don't have torque so the tyres suffer a lot more and I struggle more."

The 34-year-old joked: "after 40 years of racing it will be hard to change style, but the important thing is to have fun. I am having fun, and I'm back to being quick."

Capirossi's Ducati teammate Casey Stoner now leads the championship after taking his second win from three races.

"Today Stoner was super strong and had a fantastic race," said Capirossi.

"I couldn't keep up with him so I had to be content with a good third place, even though I had to sweat for it.

"Obviously Casey now is in front and he's going for the championship, but it's just the third race and there are still 15 to go, so there's a lot of time yet."