More rider quotes from the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya

In this last post of the day on the MotoGP race in Catalunya, you’ll find the rest of the rider quotes and see that everyone had more or less tire issues or numbing hand problems like Nicky Hayden or their machines just had performance or technical problems.
With everyone hoping that tomorrow’s post race test and the one at the Aragon Motorland circuit on Wednesday will give time to sort out their issues and while hoping for a better race at Silverstone on June 17th.

Alvaro Bautista – 6th“It is a shame that I didn’t get a perfect start.
It’s bad enough being on the third row but I managed to lose positions from there and had a tough battle to recover, especially with Valentino.
The most pleasing thing about the fight with Rossi was that I passed him in the same place he passed Lorenzo for the win in 2009.
Unfortunately the guys at the front had got too far ahead and by the time I was lapping at the same pace as them the tyres were dropping off and I couldn’t catch them.

Next time we have to try hard to get a better position on the grid and make a better start but for now I am satisfied.
It’s the same result as Jerez and Estoril but with a much smaller gap to the podium and now we have the opportunity to build on it in the test tomorrow.
”Valentino Rossi – 7th“Today went pretty well, and in some ways, it was the best dry race of the year so far: I finished closer to the group in front of me, and the gap in lap times was about half a second, which is the smallest that we’ve had so far.
Of course we’re still only talking about a seventh-place finish, but nonetheless we reached our current potential in the dry.
At a certain point in the race, I thought I could catch and pass Bautista, who himself wasn’t far from Stoner and the others.
Unfortunately, toward the end I lost performance from my rear tyre, which we tend to stress too much since I oversteer with it in the corners when the front needs some help.
Now we have two days of important testing, and we’ll try the aluminium swingarm again, along with some setup ideas in an effort to gain a bit more front grip, to help the bike to corner better.
We hope to take another small step, because the riders who were ahead of me today weren’t too far ahead.
” Stefan Bradl – 8th“In the first part of the race I could follow the top riders and I was very aggressive.
But as soon as the tyres started to work properly we had some issue and it started spinning too much.
We were on the hard tyre considering the last two days track temperature while the most of the guys in front were on the soft ones.
Unfortunately the spinning started very early because we did not have enough edge grip compared to the other riders and we were also expecting to have more dry grip but at the end it was not there.
I am a bit frustrated because my potential and the bike package were there but we could not use the tyre correctly.
Eight position is still okay and in tomorrow’s testing day we are looking forward to improve the bike for future races.
”Nicky Hayden – 9th“It was very difficult for me because I started having a problem with my hand going to sleep.
I felt it a little bit in qualifying yesterday, so we did some treatment last night with the team physio, but the problem returned in the race.
I’ve had it happen a couple of other times in my career, and around here, with so much hard braking, I could hardly feel the brake lever or the throttle.
On the straightaway, I could move my fingers and get some feeling back, but then it would return.
My pace was okay in the beginning, but after that group got away I really just tried to bring the bike home without crashing, since I couldn’t feel how hard I was braking.
Hopefully it won’t come up in the tests, because I think we can make some improvements.
”Hèctor Barberà – 11th“It’s a shame.
We began the Catalan weekend in a great way, but today the cards were shuffled during the 25 laps of the race.
From the first laps I struggled to find the right confidence with my Ducati GP12 and I had to use a map that took power from my bike, so I lost touch with the riders ahead.
For the majority of the race I managed to hold the 10th place, riding with my pace, even if I didn’t enjoy myself because I was alone.
Unfortunately, three laps before the white and black flag, I lost my position to Spies.
It was a difficult race.
We had completely different plan for this Spanish round but now we have to prepare ourselves for the next race, scheduled for Silverstone in two weeks.
”Karel Abraham – 12th“I have mixed feelings about today’s race.
Sure, I am glad I finished the race and collected my first points this season.
On the other hand, I am disappointed, as the bike is not behaving the way it should.
The rear wheel keeps slipping terribly.
During the warm-up session we wanted to try some settings from 2011 but we had to give up this idea due to rain.
It means we will have to do it during tomorrow’s tests.
There were some moments during the race when I thought I would try to overtake Barbera but eventually I realised that points were the top priority in today’s race.
Due to the compromised stability of the bike, I decided not to take the risk and finish with points.
I want to believe that today’s race represents a turn of events, towards better lap times and results.
”Aleix Espargaró – 13th“For the most part we have been faster than our rivals this weekend, but we still had a difficult race today.
It was necessary to dig deep in order to finish as the best CRT.
I was missing a few tenths with a soft tyre in practice, but I knew that we had a strong race pace.
Once again we were very strong from the midway point onwards.
I think that we are doing things well and I am happy with that.
It was a great feeling to give my all and achieve my objective in front of such great home fans.
I want to dedicate this result to my brother, who had a tough break today.
”Michele Pirro – 14th“We always get a good start but unlike the others I don’t seem to be able to push hard on fresh tyres.
Over the rest of the race my pace is consistent so we need to work on not losing so much ground at the start of the race.
I am sure we could have finished as the top CRT here today but anyway this is still a good result and I had a lot of fun overtaking.
I have to say a special thanks to the team, who are working round the clock to give me the means to do well.
I do what I can and I am sure that if we continue to believe we will get our rewards.
”Randy de Puniet – 15th“I think that we made a mistake with our tyre Choice.
We had good feedback from the hard rear yesterday and the times were good, so we decided to go with it for the race.
However, today the track conditions were different from the start and I began to feel strange with the bike.
I knew the my teammate and the other CRT riders had put gone for the soft compound, so I waited thinking that at the midway point I would have things easier.
That didn’t happen with the rear, and to add to that I made a few mistakes changing gear that lost me over a second.
Now we have to analyse what happened today and see where we went wrong with the tyre choice.
We still haven’t finished a race 100% happy, so we will continue fighting so that this can happen at Silverstone.
”James Ellison – 16th “I was happy with my pace but disappointed not to get into the points and stay with the leading trio of CRT bikes at the end.
It didn’t help that I was missing gears down the straights so that is something we are going to look into.
On a good lap I could close right in but then the problem would reoccur and I lost the time I’d made up.
I’d like to say a big thanks to the team as they worked their butts off to get the bike ready after warm up where I crashed and we are now looking forward to testing the bike tomorrow.
All things considered it was a good, solid race and I can’t wait for Silverstone to see the home fans!”Mattia Pasini – 17th“This was a strange race.
I didn’t have a good start, I lost a lot of time on the first lap and I struggled to overtake straight away a couple of riders that were in front of me.
The group of the fastest CRTs had moved away, and I tried to get closer to them.
After taking some risks with the front, I preferred to do my own race, with my rhythm, with the aim to gather as much data as possible for the upcoming events.
We still can improve a lot, not only with the setting of the ART machine, but also with the managing for the race and the electronics.
Our pace wasn’t too far from the pace the CRTs in front of us had, considering the time we lost at the beginning of the race.
In the whole, with the data we gathered today, we made a small step forward.
”Danilo Petrucci – 19thIt was a very hard race we hadn’t solved the traction problems of theese days and when I tried to force the front of my bike close.
The next race will be in Silverstone, I know and I like that track very much and I think that we should not have the same problem of this race”.
Colin Edwards:“I went out there today and did my best.
Started changing the gears, going up through the gearbox and the clutch started slipping and I wasn’t going anywhere.
Everybody passed me on the straight into turn one.
I got going and the bike just felt so different than it did yesterday: tires reacting differently to the cooler temperature, couldn’t get them to stick in the bike it just felt so stiff.
The only way to steer the bike was with the throttle.
Getting in the corner we were lacking a lot of grip.
I had to ride a lot different to how I did yesterday to try to survive and managed by slowly trying to keep the pace.
The tire dropped off and I dropped off a bit and coming our it turn eleven, with five or six laps to go it just kind of stopped, full throttle but no rpms, nothing was happening and I knew something broke so I thought: “well, the bike is still going so I’ll try to survive the last couple of laps in case something happens and I can get points.
” In the last lap on turn four it just quit completely and I would do about 3 miles/hour no matter what I did with the throttle, wouldn’t even make it to the finish line so I just came in the pits.
It wasn’t a good weekend for us.
We’ve got some work to do, figure some things out and we are going to Silverstone which is a track I like a lot so I’m looking forward to that.
”