MotoGP Qualifying: Rider Quotes

After today’s exciting qualifying session at Mugello, here are some rider quotes picked up from the MotoGP teams various websites.
Jorge Lorenzo 1st:“I’m really happy about this because it’s a great pole position and I’m really excited to be starting from the front at Mugello.

During the session we had some problems in T4 and we still need to try to improve a bit in that section, but I am fast with both types of tyre and in the end I was able to do one very fast lap.

My race pace is good and I think that I have the possibility to fight with Valentino tomorrow; in my mind he is still the favourite here.
My target is to get a good start and then try to stay with Valentino and Casey, and then I am sure I can be a part of the race.
I am very excited and I hope for a great battle.
” Casey Stoner – 2nd“We had a great free practice session this morning despite the crash and I was very comfortable with the bike, so I was optimistic about this afternoon.

Unfortunately as we picked up the pace in the afternoon we found some problems with the front and I couldn’t make the bike turn as I wanted it to.
You spend a lot of time on the edge of the tyre through the long corners at this circuit and that is where we’re losing time.
We’ll see if we can change a couple of things and improve the bike before the warm-up tomorrow.
Second place on the grid is obviously a great position but I know we could have done a lot better so I can’t help but feel frustrated.
It also makes me look forward to tomorrow even more because I can’t wait to get back out on track!”Loris Capirossi – 3rd“It has been a fantastic day today, especially because I was a bit angry yesterday and we had a really good meeting with all the team and decided to change a lot of things on the bike.
Stuart is so clever because he made the right modifications to the GSV-R and from first thing this morning it was working well.
Our target is to always try and do our best, but this front row is a great feeling for us.
The race is tomorrow but this has given a good lift to the whole team and we will now try as hard as possible tomorrow afternoon.
I know that Suzuki has been doing a lot of work at the factory and we now hope that the new engine that is coming to Barcelona will help even more.
The race will be hard for everybody tomorrow, but I don’t have anything to lose and I will try my best and see what happens!”Valentino Rossi – 4th“Sincerely I am quite disappointed to miss out on the first row! Usually I don’t mind so much but here, in Mugello, it’s special so I am sorry for this.
It was a great fight today and we had good potential for the pole position but in the end we lost the front row to Loris, who did a great lap.
Our setting is good, we have some small details to check but our race pace with the harder tyre is very good so I am not too worried.
Of course starting from the second row makes life a little more difficult but we don’t think about this.
The weather situation is very important because if it’s like this then we know we are fast but if it changes, which seems possible from the forecast, then it will be a bit more difficult.
” Randy de Puniet – 5th“I am very happy and this qualifying result is almost perfect.
This morning we worked a lot on suspension and geometry set up but we did not achieve everything we were hoping to.
What we tested was not a real improvement but eventually it helped us to understand which direction to go in.
We still have some issues with rear grip and will try to make some adjustments in tomorrow’s warm up.
Our pace is acceptable and I made my life easier thanks to the second row start.
If we get a good start, following the front riders for a few laps, we could get a positive result here.
”Colin Edwards – 6th “I never plan on going out and following anybody but right at the start of the session Valentino (Rossi) was right in front of me and he had no problem with me following.
So taking into account he’s the Mugello expert I got in behind him to see if I could learn something and I picked up a couple of tricks.
In a couple of places like the chicanes he hits the apex later at the first part to get a better drive out of the second part.
I was more sweeping through them without getting a really good drive, so that helped me a bit.
I was out on an old front tyre and a new rear and my race times were pretty consistent and I’m sure I can run 1.
49s in the race.
For me the harder rear tyre, which we’ll have to use because of the high track temperature, has just as much grip as the softer one, which shows what a great job Bridgestone has done.
I had a couple of small issues with front-end movement, which we improved and that’s a big bonus.
We changed the geometry to help with the front stability and it helped make the bike much more agile.
And that’s crucial here with the fast changes of direction.
You really need to flow round here without having to muscle the bike around because that gets pretty tough for 23 laps.
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow and putting on a good show for my guys at Tech 3 who have been awesome again.
”Andrea Dovizioso – 7th“We have improved our lap time session after session, reducing the gap from the fastest riders and this is a positive move.
Yesterday we had a gap of 1.
3s, this morning it was one second and this afternoon we got it down to five tenths so I’m happy about that.
This morning we made an adjustment to the settings which improved the feeling during corner entry.
For the qualifying session we tried another modification but we didn’t get the results we expected, so we’ll need to make some changes to finalise the set-up tomorrow morning in the warm-up.
I’m confident we can improve by two or three tenths but it will be difficult to consistently match the pace of the fastest riders.
Tomorrow the race will be tough and really I was hoping to start from the second row.
Still, I will do my best to get a good start and try not to lose contact with the first group.
It’s my home race and the atmosphere here is incredible.
The fans are so passionate and so I’ll be going all out to give them something to cheer about tomorrow.
”Dani Pedrosa – 8th“Considering what happened today, eighth place on the grid is actually quite good because I was in a lot of pain on the bike and for a while it was touch and go whether I’d be able to ride at all.
In this morning’s session I had a slide from the rear tyre and the bike went into quite a violent shake.
During this, I pulled a muscle in my right hip really hard and maybe caused some more damage – we’ll have to check what the next scans show.
But what I can say is that it was very painful and I had to stop riding immediately because the pain stopped my right leg from working properly – it was like a switch.
This afternoon I had some painkillers, but it was still very difficult.
It’s very hard to make a prediction for the race – I will try, but at the moment I don’t know for how long I can continue my pace – we’ll see.
”Toni Elias – 9th“Overall I’m happy because we’ve improved the bike a lot here, we’re on the right lines and my pace is good.
I’m also pleased because on the lap I set my qualifying time on this afternoon I was riding alone, whereas this morning I set my best time following Lorenzo.
The crash was a shame because I was following Valentino and through the first split we were 0.
00 seconds down on pole.
I felt like it was going to be a great lap! The problem is that when you know things are improving and you feel good, you can get a little excited! That’s what happened to me and I was too aggressive with the bike, which caused the crash.
Anyway, the good thing is that despite the crash my next best time was still good enough for ninth on the grid and if I can get a good start tomorrow I think we can have a great race.
I’ll be aggressive in the race too but not too much!”Chris Vermeulen – 11th:“It is not a good qualifying position, but we have definitely taken a step forward today with the bike.
All of the mechanics and engineers have done a great job today and they have given me a lot more confidence – especially in the front of the bike.
Hopefully we’ll take yet another step forward in the race tomorrow.
I want to congratulate and also thank Loris.
He helped me out in the session and showed me some lines that his 20 years of experience here have produced and you can definitely see the difference when you follow him – that certainly helped me out towards the end of qualifying.
I’m in a reasonable position on the grid and in with a lot of good riders, so if I can get a good start hopefully we can have a decent race tomorrow.
”Alex De Angelis – 12th“I don’t think we could have gone much faster than that but the gap to the riders just ahead of me is quite small so it’s a shame we couldn’t just manage a little more and gained some positions.
Anyway, we’ve got a good chance for tomorrow because my pace on race tyres is good – good enough for a top ten finish, which would be really important to us.
The races are always tough here because of the heat and the physical nature of the track but also because the riders push to the limit from the first lap to the last.
There really is no respite and it looks like it’s going to be a close one tomorrow.
As always I’m ready to fight and do my best but the important thing is to finish the race with a good result for the team in their home Grand Prix.
”Niccolò Canepa – 13th“We got closer to the fastest riders, even if I am sure I could have done better today.
In my fastest lap I was slowed down by another rider otherwise I could have easily enter the top ten.
But the most important thing is the rhythm I maintained all afternoon: if I make it to keep the same level tomorrow in the race we can have a lot of fun.
”James Toseland – 14th “I’m pretty frustrated because I feel I should be much higher up the grid.
As I know from other races earlier this season, while I can run the lap times from around sixth to tenth place, the times in this class are so close that it can be hard to fight your way through in the race.
So being on the fifth row makes it incredibly difficult.
We were playing around with the suspension settings all weekend and been going in the right direction, but when I upped my pace on the softer compound tyre the rear shock setting wasn’t quite right.
When the rear tyre was loaded as I opened the throttle it just had a harsh feeling with little movement, so we weren’t finding as much grip from the tyre as we could do.
We made some changes in the session without making any big progress and right at the end on my last soft tyre we found something a bit better.
But it was too late unfortunately and if we had found that direction a bit earlier it would have given me more time to build up my pace on the softer tyre.
I’m frustrated because I feel I can be strong at this track, but I’ll work hard with my guys tonight to try and find a better setting.
I’m still confident that I can do good times in the race and gain a few places for a good result and as always I’ll never give up.
”Nicky Hayden – 16th“I know we’re in the same position on the time sheets, worse in fact, but actually the feeling with the bike got better as the session went on this afternoon and the lap time improved quite a lot from the morning.
My pace through T1 is acceptable but I’m the slowest guy out there through T3 so that’s what we’ll be focusing on tonight I think.
We still have a big gap to make up and we need to make a major step if want to be competitive but anything can happen at this track.
We’ve got several engineers here from Bologna so hopefully they can help me out a bit.
”Mika Kallio – 17th“Nothing has changed compared to yesterday, we have improved many things without finding a valid solution.
It has been really hard for me, the bike doesn’t follow the lines I want and this makes every turn really difficult.
It is a really hard weekend for us, maybe the most complicated of the season so far.
”