MotoGP: Rider Quotes from Jerez

More from Sunday’s race at Jerez.
Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha -1st “This is a wonderful victory because yesterday we were really quite worried! I couldn’t ride how I wanted to and it was very hard.
We had to work all together to understand how to fix the problem and finally we made a big change to try to make the bike feel how I like in the corner, which worked, so I have to say a huge thank you to Jeremy and all my guys.

This morning we could tell immediately that things were much better and then we made a couple more small changes after warm-up, which made my M1 and my Bridgestone tyres feel even better.
The race was long and quite hard – I lost some time getting past Lorenzo at the start and then I had a good battle with Stoner, which I enjoyed.
After that I wasn’t so fast and I couldn’t close the gap to Pedrosa for a while; he was very quick but finally things improved and I was able to catch and pass him.

It’s great to win again and especially here in Jerez, which I love.
It’s ten years since I made the joke with the toilet here and so I thought it would be funny to do it again if I won – I liked that a lot! Now I hope that the changes we’ve made here will help us for the rest of the season.
Thanks again to everyone!”Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda – 2nd“It is quite amazing because I didn’t expect to be on the podium.
I knew that the Yamaha riders would be very, very strong here, and we are not even really ready to get these results yet so that’s why I’m surprised and my team are also surprised.
We are all very happy.
Last week was just unbelievable, but this result also, because of being on the podium here in front of my fans.
I had the opportunity to win.
In Motegi it was different but here I was leading the race so I’m very pleased,” he added.
We know that we have some problems and some issues that we would like to improve on, but after the difficult winter we had we have to be calm and move forward slowly.
”Casey Stoner – Marlboro Ducati – 3rd“After all these years this is my first time on the podium at Jerez so it has been a long time coming – I’ve had plenty of opportunities in the past but I’ve been unlucky and made mistakes, so this tastes really sweet.
Today I wasn’t nervous about the race at all because to be honest I went into it thinking that I didn’t have a chance of finishing on the podium.
We knew Dani, Valentino and Jorge all had a better pace than us so we took a bit of a gamble with the setting to try and find an extra edge and it paid off, so I have to thank the team for that.
I got a great start and I was running right up there with Dani in the early stages but I started to lose the front in a few corners.
When Valentino came I tried to hold him off as best as I could but when he came past me the second time I decided to try and stay behind him, to see if he could take me with him to Dani.
Unfortunately from that point I was losing the front even more often and there was one place in particular where I was almost crashing every lap.
When Jorge started to close in I honestly thought it was ‘game over’ but I kept pushing to try and at least take the battle to the final laps.
It was just getting to the point where I was going to have to back off because I was risking a crash, but Jorge solved that problem for me! I couldn’t believe my luck but I think we deserved it though because the whole team has worked incredibly hard all weekend and I could not have given more in the race.
It is only third place but it feels even better than the win in Qatar.
”Randy DePuniet- LCR Honda – 4th “It was a perfect week end for me and the Team.
When I enjoy the bike I can go really fast and people can see that today.
This was the best bike I had since I have been riding with Lucio’s Team.
It was very easy to ride and I had fun.
I made a good start and when Dovizioso overtook me I remain concentrated trying to keep my position.
After few laps he made a mistake and I came back to the 5th place.
Then, at the end, the final result of the race gave me the 4th place overall.
I am very satisfied about the work we made during this week end as we struggled a bit here during the pre season test.
Honestly I think that if we keep this pace for the rest of the season we can be very competitive.
However we keep our feet on the ground as we must restart from zero in Le Mans.
I absolutely want to end all the races to get as many points as possible.
A big thank you to my Team because they did a great job!”Marco Melandri – Hayate Racing – 5th“It was such a nice race for us.
We weren’t as good in practice, but we worked really hard for the race.
We changed the setup a lot, and we had grip problems like everyone else.
I had a nice fight with Colin (Edwards) and Loris (Capirossi), with plenty of clean passes.
We tried to catch Randy de Puniet, but I don’t think that he made a single mistake out there.
Determination is definitely our secret weapon.
There is determination from all sides; the mechanics, the engineers, from me.
Everyone is working towards the same goal.
If we carry on like this, we might even start to get some good luck!”Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki – 6th“I am a bit upset with the result, because we had a problem with the tyre and had to change it on the grid and that cost us some places at the start.
We put in a new one and for the first two laps it did not work as well as I would have liked.
After it settled down I pushed hard and chased Marco and Colin and tried get past them.
I did that but the grip dropped off pretty quickly and they went back past me, so I played about with the traction control to find the best solution.
I found a good setting and although I was fighting a lot with the bike I was able to stay with the two of them.
In the last three laps I tried to overtake and I got past Colin and went by Marco, but I braked too late and ran wide and they both went back past me.
On the last lap I overtook Colin again, but there wasn’t enough time to get Marco.
We want to go much better than this, but we have to work harder, because although the bike is not too bad we have to take some big steps!”Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 7th“I got a really good start but right from the first lap I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run the pace I needed.
The guys in front just gapped me immediately and I couldn’t get the bike to turn.
We went in the wrong direction yesterday when it was hot, so for the race we went back to the setting I’d had in the morning when the track temperature was a bit cooler.
In the cooler temperatures that setting was fine, but once the temperature goes up I just couldn’t get into the rhythm I want and know I was capable of.
I wanted to be smooth and precise but I couldn’t do that.
I was having to adjust my style to get some weight on the rear to help the bike turn, but it wasn’t enough for me to get into the top six and that’s a bit frustrating.
”Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda – 8th“I didn’t make a great start but I was able to recover some places and I’m sure I could have stayed with Lorenzo if I hadn’t made the mistake.
On the eighth lap while I was on the fifth position I lost the rear entering turn eight and I almost crashed.
Fortunately I was able to rejoin the race and climb back up from sixteenth to eighth position.
I wasn’t as fast as I wanted today because were still not at 100% with the set up of the bike.
I’m disappointed about today’s result because we didn’t get the best out of the bike today.
Dani had a great race today and I think he’s getting the maximum possible from the package, so I want to say congratulations to him.
”Toni Elias – San Carlo Honda Gresini – 9th: “I honestly thought we were capable of a better race today but it was impossible.
We were suffering too much throughout the race with a lack of rear traction and I can promise the fans that I couldn’t do any more than what I did.
In a situation like this you can only try to take some positives away from the Grand Prix as a whole and looking back at the weekend we have at least continued to make progress.
We were two seconds off the pace in Qatar, one and a half seconds off in Motegi and one second off here.
The target for Le Mans is to reduce it to less than a second.
I hope we can do it.
” Chris Vermeulen – Rizla Suzuki – 10th“I got a reasonable start off the line, but I came together with a couple of other riders in turn one and lost my momentum.
It was a bit difficult as I had a couple of Ducatis around me and with their straight-line speed they were a bit hard to get past.
Once I got by I thought I would be able to pick up my lap-time, but we struggled with front grip and I wasn’t able to.
The track temperature was a few degrees hotter today and it seemed to affect us more than it did some others and we have to work out why.
I am disappointed with 10th because obviously the goal was to be nearer the front.
We will now re-group and get to work on the next race.
”Yuki Takahashi – Scot Racing – 12th“I’m satisfied.
I had a good feeling with the bike, the best since the begining of the championship.
I did a good start and a fast first lap.
I overtook Elias and found myself in a good position, but in the second half of the race I started experience some problems with the tyres, first with the front one and then with the rear.
Anyway, I’m really happy: my program is to learn race by race, and that is what I’m doing”.
James Toseland – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 -13th “It has been a tough weekend and we have got some issues to sort out.
We’re still trying a few things on the bike and I’m still searching for a comfortable setting over a race distance.
I still need a second or so on race pace but I need to sort out qualifying too.
I can do the same times as four or five guys in front of me, but when you’re all lapping at the same pace, it’s hard to come through.
I’m giving myself too much to do from qualifying and being too far back.
You don’t need to be too far off but if you start at the back you stay at the back in a competitive class like this.
It has not been a great start to the season but I don’t feel we’re that far away.
We’ve got a lot of information from this weekend and we’re eliminating things that we know don’t work.
I’m confident we’re close to finding the setting I need and working hard with my guys to find it.
”do it.
”Alex De Angelis – San Carlo Honda Gresini – 14th “I woke up this morning with a bout of flu and I was really struggling.
Doctor Costa sorted me out with some medication but I certainly wasn’t at 100% for the race.
I got a decent start but I got stuck behind Toseland and even though I felt much faster than him he was very, very strong on the brakes and I just couldn’t get past.
I got stuck there for the whole race and that was that, pretty much! There’s not much else to say! It has been one of my hardest weekends for a long time and I’m looking forward to spending some time at home, recovering from this illness and having a good rest before France, which promises to be another tough one for us.
”Nicky Hayden – Malboro Ducati – 15th “I was nervous that physically it would be a tough race but it turned out to be a lot worse than we expected.
In the beginning I struggled a lot again with a full fuel load and I made a mistake on the first lap – I was trying to make some positions up and I actually lost some.
I tried to recover but something was wrong with the set-up of the bike.
I can’t make the harder compound work well with my bike and I have to go with the softer one but today even those didn’t start to work well until I got a lot of heat into them.
I did my best time on the seventeenth lap so there is something we have definitely to work on with the team.
We need to look at the data and think up something different for the next one.
”Niccolò Canepa – Pramac Racing -16th “We started quite well.
During warm up we found a good technical compromise, but after a few laps in the race something happened in the front part of my bike that didn’t allow me to result as fast.
It’s a pity because I could have finish this race probably three or four positions ahead.
We will keep working hard to improve really soon.
”Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamah -DNF“I am very sad, because I was so fast all weekend and on pole position.
Unfortunately today the temperature meant that our setting did not work in the same way and at the moment we don’t understand why.
This is really more disappointing than the actual crash.
Fourth position wouldn’t have been so bad but when you’re in front of your fans, at home with so much adrenalin on the bike of course you try to do the maximum.
I could see that the podium was possible and maybe the right thing would have been to go more gently and not push so hard in that moment, but I always want to do my best.
Then I made a mistake and I threw all my good work away.
We have to try to forget this and wake up feeling positive tomorrow because Le Mans is near.
I’m sorry to all the fans who came to see me, to my team, family and to everybody!” Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing – DNF “I am very sad today because I was doing well.
In the start I made it to overtake three opponents but then I felt something strange in the rear part of my bike.
I thought that it would be gone really quickly, but the situation has gotten worst and I was obligated to enter the pit.
It’s a pity because I could have entered once again the top ten.
Now we will analyze the situation to be able to improve in France in fourteenth days.
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