Ducati pragmatic after home defeat.

Despite MotoGP World Championship leader Casey Stoner starting from pole position, and both he and Ducati Marlboro team-mate Loris Capirossi leading the early stages of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, there was to be no dream ending for the home manufacturer.

Instead, whilst title rival Valentino Rossi romped to his sixth consecutive home victory, Stoner's performance - for the first time this season - deteriorated during the second half of the race, culminating in the loss of third place to satellite Ducati rider Alex Barros in the closing stages, while Capirossi plummeted back to seventh at the flag.

It was a bitter pill for the factory team to swallow, but Stoner's still holds the championship lead - albeit by a reduced nine points - while Ducati remains on top of the manufacturers' championship and Ducati Marlboro the teams' championship heading to round seven in Catalunya next weekend.

"The race didn't go as we had expected, we were aiming for a better result, even though we had two Ducatis in the first four," confessed Ducati Corse CEO Claudio Domenicali. "The weekend's extremely changeable weather conditions didn't allow us to find the ideal set-up to allow our riders to get the maximum from their bikes. In particular the bike/tyre combination wasn't perfect for the faster turns, which are fundamental to fast lap times at Mugello. Anyway, Loris was very competitive in the early stages, and we will continue working with him to get the best set-up for his new engine spec at Barcelona. Once again I was amazed by Casey's coolness and determination in getting so close to the podium. He confirmed once more that he's consistent as well as fast, and quite able to manage a race when he cannot fight for the win."

Stoner himself later stated that he 'knew we would struggle', but believes the set-up problems that kept him off the podium for the first time in four races should be solved by next weekend's race in Catalunya.

"That was a very difficult race. After warm-up we knew we would struggle a bit but I thought maybe we could make the podium," said the Australian. "We were really close to a top-three result but we didn't quite manage it. Anyway, I'd like to say thank you to the team because we tried everything we could this weekend but unfortunately the conditions weren't perfect for us, with so much rain during practice. We learned some more lessons that will make us come back stronger at Barcelona next weekend. The biggest difficulty we had today was turning in the long corners and we also lacked a bit of traction. But, as I said, we should be able to solve these problems before the next race and score a better result."

For Capirossi, Mugello marked his first race with a new engine spec in his GP7 and the 2006 Italian GP runner-up was at least pleased to have led the race after a difficult start to 2007.

"I gave everything I had today and things were going well at the start," said Loris. "Then I had two big moments, first at Arrabbiata 1, then at Arrabbiata 2. I lost the front and risked falling, so that lost me some confidence in the front and I wasn't able to maintain such a fast pace, I had to slow my rhythm. Unfortunately, the strange weather conditions during the weekend didn't allow us to work the way we wanted to on my new engine spec. I used the new spec today because Ducati had done such a good job in giving me more rideability but we lacked some speed. Anyway, it was good to be up front again and we will work to improve some more during practice at Barcelona next weekend."