Read what all the MotoGP riders had to say after the first free practice at the Mugello circuit.
Valentino Rossi – 1st – 1′49.
751“I am so happy to be back here in Mugello and we did a good first practice.
We worked well, trying a lot of different settings as well as soft and hard Bridgestone tyres, and we are quite fast.
I still have pain in my shoulder but it seems that this track isn’t as bad and today I wasn’t suffering like I did in Le Mans.
Of course we don’t know how the shoulder will feel over the weekend but at this early stage I’m quite confident.
The important thing is to work at 100% to find the right setting and make sure we’re as fast as possible for Sunday.
” Jorge Lorenzo – 2nd – 1′50.
120 “I’m happy about this session and I’m feeling quite good.
It’s always difficult to be fast straight away here, because you need many laps to understand the track with all its changes in direction, but after I had done some laps I improved a lot.
Now we have to try to improve some things on the bike.
The most important thing is to get on the front row tomorrow and to do that we need to make some small changes.
The weather is hot but it’s okay, I’m fit, well prepared and have a good pace already.
”Loris Capirossi – 3rd – 1′50.
359“Apart from the crash it has been a very positive day here in Mugello! We started with two different bikes and one was very good and gave me a good feeling.
Overall I am very happy with the day’s work.
I made the mistake and crashed at the end, it was my fault and I know what caused it so it is no big problem.
I know we can still improve this weekend and I am confident for the race.
”Colin Edwards – 4th – 1′50.
772 “I’m really happy with today because the first three races have not been easy at all.
Nothing had worked at all so far this season, so basically I completely changed the set-up of the bike today.
I just told my team to change the set-up so it was completely the same as Mugello last year when I had my best result at this track.
We changed riding position and got my weight moved forward because I’ve been having a problem keeping weight on the front this season.
Now it just feels so natural and the bike does exactly what I want it to do.
When I want the bike to do something it actually does it instead of me waiting and wondering why it didn’t work.
Now it just turns and it feels like I’m spending much less time on the side of the tyre.
I turn in now really quickly and don’t run wide or have to work hard to get the bike round the corner.
I want to say a big thanks to Tech 3 and Yamaha because it feels like my bike again and I’m riding with much more confidence.
” Dani Pedrosa – 5th – 1′50.
773“We didn’t go crazy testing many things on the first day here in Mugello.
We were focused mainly on testing Bridgestone’s tyre options because it’s very important to get that selection right to find the performance for race distance.
The track conditions weren’t bad today although the surface was quite slippery, so times will improve.
Stability and agility are very important at this circuit and we still need to work on the chassis set-up side to improve these areas.
We were not especially fast today, but we were not looking for an ultimate lap time either.
For the first day of practice we are going in the right direction and tomorrow we can move forward.
”Ben Spies – 6th – 1′51.
004“This track is definitely a more difficult place to learn but it is a super fun track.
There are a couple of corners that are really difficult to learn and it can take a while to get into a rhythm.
But coming here on the back of a couple of bad results and being immediately this fast on such a technically challenging track is really good for me.
It doesn’t feel like I should have been sixth and I guess that is a good sign.
I thought I was doing fine so to see I was sixth, I was blown away with that because I thought I’d be about tenth or just outside the top ten.
I’m still having a bit of trouble with the ankle I hurt in the practice crash in Le Mans.
There’s quite a bit of ligament damage but the only time I really feel it is when I’m trying to tuck in tight on the straight.
It’s not a major injury but it will take a few weeks to fully recover.
On the bike it hurts but it’s not slowing me down.
I’ll analyse the data tonight because as always when I’m starting fresh on a new track, there is more time to come from my riding and the bike.
But to be sixth on my first day at such a difficult track is a good lift for my confidence.
” Casey Stoner – 7th – 1’51.
128“I think I only managed three ‘proper’ laps and none of them were decent! I had a crash at the start, which obviously didn’t help.
Basically when I went to grab the brakes at the “Bucine” corner there was nothing there! I tried to tip the bike into the corner but she was skipping wide so I just had to run her into the gravel.
Stones got everywhere and that kind of stuffed that bike up for the rest of the session.
It was a shame because we’d switched back to the old forks on that bike and even though I only had a couple of laps on them it was enough to make me want to use them on both bikes tomorrow.
The feel with them is more aggressive but we have feel.
The other bike had the new forks on but I just don’t have the same confidence with them and I was losing the front in the same kind of corners that I have been in the last races.
Nothing we tried seemed to work today, it was just one of those days! All we can do is start again tomorrow – hopefully the weather stays good because we need laps.
”Andrea Dovizioso – 8th – 1′ 51.
255“It’s my home race and already we can feel the atmosphere building – it’s a special event for the Italians here at Mugello.
To be honest I’d have preferred to have finished closer to the front because it’s quite a big gap to the leaders, but with some work on the machine set-up I’m sure we can move forward.
I was slow mid-corner pretty much everywhere today, and you spend a lot of time leaned over here so that’s why we are quite a way off at the moment.
The bike feels like it wants to run-on as I’m exiting the corner so this is the area we’ll focus on tonight.
I’m confident we can improve from this position.
”Nicky Hayden -9th – 1’51.
387“Today wasn’t as smooth out of the gate as we would have liked.
The bike didn’t feel too bad but we were struggling in some of the downhill corners to get it to hold the line and change direction without using the brake to get the weight onto the front.
We certainly need to take a good look at things together tonight and see where we can make it better because nothing came easy out there.
It is not just a front-end thing, we need a little bit of improvement all over the bike.
I know my guys will be working hard as always and tomorrow we need to get our head down again because this is such an important race for Ducati.
”Héctor Barberá – 10th – 1’51.
582“I had a good feeling and a lot of confidence at the start but got too excited and pushed too hard under braking in the last turn.
I ran it wide but I was going quite fast so decided to lay it down so that I didn’t hit the wall.
Luckily I was okay and able to go back out for the last half hour.
I felt really comfortable with the Ducati again and just tried to slowly chip away at my lap times without making too many changes to the bike.
I always enjoy riding Mugello and I don’t want to pass up the opportunity of a good race on Sunday.
I was able to improve little by little and set my fastest time virtually at the end.
The Ducati is working well and I’m enjoying myself more on it every day.
”Randy De Puniet – 11 th – 1’51.
605 “People could be disappointed about our position in the classification but we have followed our standard TO DO list lapping on the same tyre throughout the session and we are pretty satisfied about the bike set up.
We did over the race distance with the front and rear race tyre and we have been working on the race set up.
I jumped onto bike number two with different settings but I felt more comfortable on bike number one.
Anyway the overall package is quite good and I am confident ahead tomorrow’s qualifying: we can easily aim to a second row start but we need to improve the traction control”.
Marco Simoncelli – 12th – 1’51.
717“Things didn’t start out too badly but it’s fair to say that the changes we made as the session progressed did not have the desired effect.
In the end we have finished twelfth so we need to rejig our ideas for tomorrow on how we work with the bike.
The track conditions certainly aren’t the best and there are a lot of bumps that mean I can’t get the bike to go where I want.
We are trying to solve this problem by improving the balance of the bike and get some more confidence in the front.
”Marco Melandri – 13th – 1’51.
782“The Grand Prix has started out in a difficult way.
The first run felt okay but after that we tried a few things to make the bike better and it just felt worse.
By the end the feeling was terrible.
Now we need to analyse the data and try to work out why the path we took was so wrong and what we can do to find the right way forward.
The track isn’t in good shape – it gets worse every year and has a lot of bumps – but it is the same for everybody so that is no excuse.
” Aleix Espargarò – 14th – 1′52 202“Also if I’m far from the top riders, I have great confidence in the tomorrow tests.
This is one of the most difficult circuit of the MotoGP and I’ll try to do my best to get a good result here.
We worked hard to develop the best bike for tomorrow so that I could be able to move closer to the first riders.
After the good result of Le Mans I’m very motivated to get the best result and I know that with a little of more feeling, I can improve my lap times.
” Hiroshi Aoyama – 15th – 1’52.
399“My first impression was better today than on the first day in Le Mans.
We made some quite big changes on the bike, but we still have to work on that.
The new set up is positive, but it still is not perfect.
It doesn’t work as smooth as I expected and we have to continue to try to get the best out of the machine.
”Mika Kallio – 16th – 1′52 .
418“Fortunately my shoulder doesn’t makes me feel so much pain, I have one second gap from the top eight, but I think that with the changes that we have done today, I’ll try to recover the gap and do my best.
We had some setting problems that haven’t allowed me to lead in the better way my bike, but my team has already identified the problems and knew how to solve them.
This is a very difficult track for me, but I will give my best tomorrow to recover some places and to gain a good position on the starting grid.
” Álvaro Bautista – 17th – 1′55.
257“I had a very hard practice because I thought I was in better condition than I am.
I feel better than I did at Le Mans, but it is still very hard to change direction and I don’t have enough strength in my left arm to ride the bike how I would like to.
I am using all my body and this is making me go slower than I want.
My target this weekend is to get more confident with the bike and to get a good feeling.
I am determined to finish on Sunday, so that is my first goal.
”
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