Even if you missed out watching today’s MotoGP qualifying action at Silverstone, you can find out what the riders had to say about it, right here.
Casey Stoner – 1st“Everything has gone really well this weekend.
We were lucky it stayed dry for qualifying, but it doesn’t look so good for tomorrow.
We’ve been competitive in each session and in various weathers, so I hope we have prepared ourselves for the race, whatever the conditions.
We haven’t changed too much from the set-up we had inBarcelona, and this afternoon was important for us to see what we could get from the hard tyre, what our pace is and if we can find some more edge grip, and we definitely found some more traction so I’m very happy with how everything is working at the moment.
For pole position we changed the set-up and balance of the bike alittle and on my best lap I lost the front a few times and wasn’t so confident with the balance, so I feel lucky to have got the pole, but for sure it’s the best way to start a Grand Prix.
We’ll see what the weather does tomorrow, but I love this track and I love this part of the UK and I’m really happy to be here!”Marco Simoncelli – 2nd“I didn’t get pole position today, but I am happier than I was last weekend because at Barcelona it was only my last lap of qualifying that was really fast.
This time my race pace is better on both hard and soft tyres, and I feelconfident I can be fast in the dry and in the rain.
” Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd“I am very happy because tomorrow we will start from the first row and today we got a lot closer to the Hondas.
I rode at a very high level today and I’m ready and focused for the race.
I will do my best to make a good start tomorrow and fight for the front.
At this moment our weapon is consistency.
You try many things some days and some days you find a solution like today.
I don’t know if it is enough to fight for victory but we will give our best.
I’m very proud of my crew, they really worked hard to deliver a great package for qualifying!” Ben Spies – 4th“It was a good day today, we made some improvements to the bike and then tried some different tyres to evaluate and see if they are going to be race tyres for tomorrow if it’s dry.
Qualifying went well, when we tried to nail our fast lap we didn’t quite get it all in there, I left out a couple of tenths but they wouldn’t have moved me further up anyway, just a bit closer to Jorge.
I gave it my maximum and we’re starting in a good position so we need to get a good start and of course see what the weather is going to do!”Andrea Dovizioso – 5th“Compared to this morning’s practice we improved the bike and I had quite a good feeling with my machine.
We worked on the set-up to have more control especially over the bumps and the different track surfaces.
After 10 laps we managed a 2m 03.
8s with the hard tyres, which is not too bad.
In the afternoon we were faster, butthe others also improved a lot.
We need to analyse the data and understand in which areas we can work to gain some tenths.
Tomorrow we will begin from the second row and it will be very important to have a good start and maintain contact with the riders at the front.
”Karel Abraham – 6th“Honestly, I didn’t expect that I will be able to set such a great time.
I am very satisfied with this result.
Iknew that I am able to set fast and consistent lap times, but until today I wasn’t able to push enough in the last moments of the qualifying, I will be very nervous at the start of the race.
”Álvaro Bautista – 9th“Today we have been able to do both sessions in the dry conditions, so that has been good for us to test many things.
I started this morning with the same setting as I had yesterday morning and I immediately felt a lot more comfortable today than I did on Friday.
We were able to try the bike with a couple of different settings to make it shorter or longer – I preferred the longer set-up because this track has fast corners and you need more stability.
I tried the front hard tyre this afternoon because the soft one this morning was a bit difficult to turn in some corners and I was also able to get a good rhythm with the used tyres today, so that is an important thing for the race.
I think I could have improved my lap-time at the end, but I got in some traffic and was never able to follow someone faster than me.
I am happy being on the third row, but I think our potential is better than that.
The weather says it could rain, but I think we have a good setting for that from yesterday.
Whatever happens I want to get a good start and get with the group in front and I’m sure I will be able to improve my rhythm and times.
I am pleased with what we have done here this year, because in 2010 I had a bad feeling and wasn’t even able to put my knee down! This year it is a good sign that the bike has improved so much because I now feel comfortable and confident on it.
I think we have made a good step forward and I am looking forward to the race.
”Randy de Puniet – 10th“It was a challenging, difficult day.
We changed a number of things between this morning and this afternoon, for qualifying.
I managed to improve my best time, but my goal was to be a bit higher.
We’re still far from the others that should be within reach.
Tomorrow I’ll try everything to finish in the top ten, maximum top eight.
All the Ducatis are having many problems here at Silverstone, so I think I’ll have to give more than 100% to reach my goal.
Today everyone on the team did our best, and our best, unfortunately, was only tenth place.
Tomorrow, with the rain, we’ll try to prepare the bike as well as we can.
”Hiroshi Aoyama – 11th“This is a difficult track and, of course, where I had my big fall last year.
It has been a busy two days, trying to get the machine settings correct and trying to deal with all the conditions.
We have had so many different weathers – rain, wind, sunshine.
Hopefully warm-up will be dry because we have more things to check for the race.
I will do my best in the race.
”Hector Barbera – 12th“It has been a strange day, in which I could have got a better grid position.
I want to focus on the positive side, which is that we are close to sixth place.
I think that this is where we can finish tomorrow, based on our pace and consistency over the past two days.
Although the result hasn’t been great today, I feel very comfortable on my Ducati.
I am convinced that we can get a good finish tomorrow.
We will have to make some changes if it rains, but even though I would prefer a dry race I think that we are prepared.
I will wait until tomorrow to show what I can do.
We have found a good setting and are ready to race.
I have managed to put in a lot of laps and am really motivated.
”Toni Elias – 14th“Despite the crash and the lap time we obtained some small improvements using a new suspension link that makes me more stable now.
Obviously the crash spoiled our to do’ list for the qualifying session, but I am lucky I am unhurt: I was lapping on hard rear tyre pushing a bit too much and I crashed out.
Honestly I do not feel verycomfortable in the dry so I am hoping to race in the wet tomorrow because it seems we have found a good direction.
”Loris Capirossi – 15th“We had a very hard time today and yesterday.
In the afternoon, during qualifying, we went faster, improving our best lap time, but not enough.
I wasn’t able to go fast, and this is probably my fault.
It wasn’t a good performance.
At the end of the session, we put on new tires to try to improve the situation, but the back of the bike was hopping and there was nothing to do.
Maybe the rain tomorrow will help us for the race.
”
Leave a Reply