Rider quotes from today’s qualifying session at the Assen circuit.
Valentino Rossi – 1st – 1:36.
025“This is a really good pole position because I’ve only had one other this season, at Motegi in strange conditions.
I had a lot of traffic around me in the last few minutes so I had to be careful to judge exactly the right point to push, but I got it right and I was really happy with my great lap at the end.
I feel good and I am very strong with the Bridgestone race tyres but it’s going to be a hard race because the others are also very fast.
We still have two or three points on the track where we could improve our performance a bit more so we still have a bit of work to do, but I am confident that we can make another great race.
Of course we don’t know about the weather, but this is normal for Assen and we will just have to manage!”Dani Pedrosa – 2nd – 1’36.
110 “I’m pleased with my qualifying position today, especially considering that there was quite a lot of traffic on track in the final few minutes.
It’s always good to be on the front row because then you have the best chance to make a clean getaway, so I’m satisfied with second.
I was lucky at the end of the session to have Valentino in front and being behind him helped me a lot to set this lap time.
The feeling from the machine is quite good, although we still need to make some adjustments to the set-up to make best use of the Bridgestone tyres for the race, and this is what we’ll be working on in the warm-up tomorrow.
My physical condition on the bike today was again much better than at the last race in Barcelona and this makes a lot of difference because I am able to concentrate fully on riding.
I know that the race will be very physically demanding though, so I can take nothing for granted.
Still, with some final set-up improvements, I hope I can make a good start and have a strong race tomorrow.
”Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd – 1′36.
393“I’m happy with the first row, another one for this season, and this is the most important thing with regards to the start of the race tomorrow.
Of course I wanted my fourth pole position but I had some problems in the last sector; I’m not sure why yet.
We need to continue working to try to improve in that area and to understand the problem, because the race is going to be very hard with quite a few riders up front.
We don’t know what the weather will be and so we will have to wait and see until warm-up tomorrow morning.
” Casey Stoner – 4th – 1’36.
633“Pretty much all weekend we’ve been very fast on race tyres and even though we’re normally good for a single qualifying lap on a soft tyre we’ve had a few issues here.
With my second soft tyre I was up out of the seat a couple of times but we changed it and the next one was a lot better.
Unfortunately a couple of riders got in my way, waiting for a tow in a dangerous and fast part of the track, which obviously cost me time but could have cost me a whole lot more if I had crashed.
It is a frustrating situation which seems to be happening more and more in MotoGP and it is about time something was done to stop it.
Thankfully I’m starting from fourth on the grid, which I am fine with because I can still challenge at the front from there and with the times we set today there is no reason not to be confident.
”Colin Edwards – 5th – 1.
36.
760 “It certainly wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be because at the start of the session I was in and out of the pits a lot making adjustments and normally that’s not a good sign.
I’ve got a busy feeling on race tyres now I’m using the longer wheelbase.
It puts a bit more weight on the front and while it’s not chatter I don’t feel I’m absorbing the bumps as well as I need to be.
At certain times it feels like I’m skimming over the bumps, but despite that I’m pretty happy with my pace.
I did a 37.
3 on race tyres and for race pace that’s acceptable.
I think low 1.
37s or high 1.
36s will be the pace if it stays dry, and I’m confident I can run those times.
I put my head down on the softer rear tyre and on my last lap I managed to set my best time even though the hard front had eight laps on it.
After eight or nine laps the front will start to lose that special feeling and I had a couple of slides on my last couple of laps and I wasn’t going to go any quicker than what I did.
Considering that I’m happy to have equalled my best qualifying of the year, particularly as I feel we can make the bike better.
I think we’re looking good for tomorrow because the fourth section has always been a bogey section for me and that’s where you can gain or lose a lot of time.
On the Bridgestone’s it is unbelievable through that last section.
They are just so stable you don’t get the handlebars shaking or flapping through the fast sections.
Everything just rolls nice and smooth and I think we can get out there and fight at the front tomorrow.
”Loris Capirossi – 6th – 1’36.
953“Overall we have made another step with the setting and I am quite happy about that, but we still need to take another step tomorrow morning in the warm-up.
The whole team is working really hard and they really understand what I need.
I am still losing a bit of front feeling, but it’s not that bad and I think it is something we can overcome.
Second row is not too bad and we will have to see what sort of start we get and try to keep with the front pack.
I am quite optimistic for tomorrow because if we make the small step we are looking for we will be right up there challenging!”Chris Vermeulen – 7th – 1’37.
194“It was a fairly good qualifying for us and a lot better than the previous two GPs.
The team did a great job and made a big step forward with the bike.
We went well on both the compounds of tyres today and the softer one gave quite a bit more grip at the rear so we used that to do the qualifying laps on.
We were able to do seven or eight laps on them and they stayed very consistent which shows what a good job Bridgestone are doing.
Unfortunately on my last run we were a bit close on time and I thought I’d get in one more lap, sadly I wasn’t able to, but I am sure I would have improved my time – and hopefully grid position – because I made a couple of mistakes on my previous lap – which was my fastest – and I’m sure I’d have put them right Seventh place is a bit closer to the front than we have been recently and I’m feeling quite confident and looking forward to a good race tomorrow.
”Andrea Dovizioso – 8th – 1’37.
237 “I have to say I’m quite disappointed about my qualifying result this afternoon because starting from the third row makes the race more complicated.
Although my race pace was pretty good throughout the session, I didn’t manage to make the best of the soft tyre option, so tomorrow I will really have to focus on making a good start and recovering as many positions as possible during the first two or three laps.
Apart from my grid position, I’m confident because I further improved my race pace with the hard Bridgestone tyres by two or three tenths compared to this morning’s session.
Me and the crew will take a look at the data this evening to make some final decisions on the set-up solutions we tested this afternoon.
The weather is looking uncertain again, but we’ve had some good wet/dry races this season so I’m not worried about the bike change if it happens.
”James Toseland – 9th – 1.
37.
323 “I’m really happy even though I’m only ninth again on the grid.
We’ve spent a lot of time working on the race setting with the new set-up and I’m feeling really confident on race tyres.
The weight we’ve put on the rear is really helping the Bridgestone work and its helping keep load on the tyre.
We put a bit more weight on the rear again today and we’re getting better rear grip.
I’m just trying to work the rear tyre a lot more with that extra load on it and that means I can exit the corner a lot better.
I’ve also got more stability going into the corner but on the softer tyres there was so much traffic that I got held up a bit otherwise I might have gained another couple of places.
I had to roll off when I came across Toni Elias and that was a big shame because I’d just done my best first split of the whole session.
Fingers crossed it will be dry tomorrow because I feel I’m getting close to where I need to be.
After Catalunya I’ve done about 15 practice starts this weekend because it is crucial that I get away to give myself a chance of a top six.
I’m trying a slightly different clutch just to be a bit smoother because as I release the clutch it has been a bit aggressive in the first few races.
But I’m desperate to give Yamaha and my guys at Tech 3 a good result after all the help they’ve been giving me this weekend.
” Randy De Puniet – 10th – 1’37.
473“After this morning crash we decided to go for a longer run to confirm our race set up.
Basically we have an acceptable lap time on race tyre but I struggled with rear grip on the edge.
We do not have to much time to work on that and so we moved to soft tyres but we could not really improve our lap time.
The bike slid to much and do not want to take any risk.
We expected a better grid position after yesterday’s performance but it’s not the end of the world.
I am hoping to get a top eight finish”.
Alex De Angelis – 11th – 1’37.
637 “Overall I’m quite satisfied with our performance today – it’s just a shame that Capirossi and Talmacsi got in my way through the last couple of corners of my last lap because I know I could have gone much faster.
I’m sure Loris didn’t do it on purpose but he is very experienced and it was a big mistake for him to make.
I’m not angry but obviously very frustrated because I’m sure I would have moved ahead of De Puniet on the grid and maybe even Toseland, which would have meant an extra row and that would have been really important to me.
The good thing is that I did a 1’38.
0 on a race tyre and that is encouraging for tomorrow, even though I think it’s going to rain.
”Mika Kallio – 12th – 1’37.
749“I was expecting to enter the top ten today, but unluckily it didn’t go this way and I am a bit disappointed.
I thought I would have been able to be at least half of second faster.
I have encountered some complication with the front part of the bike that didn’t allow me to push more.
Tomorrow we will have to modify the balance of the bike making it higher in the front during the warm up to understand if the bike will be more easy to ride.
Anyway it seems the weather forecast for tomorrow will be completely different compare today and this would change the situation to everyone.
”Nicky Hayden – 13th – 1’37.
759“Unfortunately qualifying is not our strong point at the moment but we made some improvements with the bike in free practice this morning.
We changed the transmission, which helped a bit, and made a few more tweaks that made the general feeling of the bike a bit better but for the afternoon we tried some stuff that didn’t work so well.
We had to go back to what we had this morning and I was only able to go a little bit faster, which is why the qualifying position isn’t great.
The cooler track today made it hard to get heat into the left-hand side of the tyre.
You don’t get good balance with the single compound tyres around here, for me at least, the right side is really good but it’s hard to get heat into the left.
We’ll see what the weather brings, obviously we could do with it being nice and hot, line up and see what we got!”Toni Elias – 15th – 1’38.
136 “To be honest everything worked better today but in the end I screwed it up.
I have to hold my hands up and say that I made the wrong decision and it is my fault we’re down in 15th place, which is not good enough, so I want to apologise to the team.
Basically I spent the last few laps looking for a tow but by the time I got one and tried to push for a good grid position, the tyre temperature had dropped too low.
It was the last lap and it didn’t work out like I thought it would.
We can’t do anything about it now – the only option is to get a good start and pull back as many positions as I can.
”Sete Gibernau – 16th – 1’38.
453“Obviously the result is not good, we’re losing out in the electronics because this is a particularly sensitive bike in that area and we’re struggling to get the traction control to help us out in the corners.
Personally I’m starting to feel tired, I’ve been training hard this week and this is a new circuit for us with a bike that we still don’t have a clear base set-up for.
We have some new ideas to try in the morning warm-up tomorrow and we just have to be patient because this a process we need to go through.
More than ever this is a team effort, we have to work together, analyze the data properly and form an understanding of everything so that we can move forward in the races ahead.
”Niccolò Canepa – 17th – 1’38.
605“Unluckily I slipped in the most important part of the qualifying session and with the second bike with only a few minutes left it hasn’t be easy to improve my performances.
I tried, but we will have to start from the seventeenth position.
The situation compared to yesterday has improved a lot and we will have to try to make another step forward tomorrow during the race to gain some more positions.
”Yuki Takahashi – 18th – 1’38.
619 “The finger does not hurt too much, but I’m not able to use it as I would.
The worst thing is the pain at my back.
I’ve been told that tomorrow we can expect rain: it could help because as I’m not at my best, as fitness, a dry race would be more difficult for me”.
Gabor Talmacsi – 19th – 1’39.
407“I feel better and better.
Every lap I improve.
You can see it by the lap times: I get my best ones always in the last run.
We arrived at a point in which we must begin to work on the setup to improve further.
In the very last moments a couple of riders almost touched, in front of me: to avoid them I had to put the two wheels on the grass.
Normal stuff: it’s racing”.