After reading what the Honda and factory Yamaha riders had to say, here’s what the rest of the grid had to say after the Catalunya GP, including Colin Edwards who after failing the medical test jokingly said, “They won’t let me ride because I’m not called Valentino Rossi.
” However the Texan is highly determined to ride at Silverstone next week after undergoing surgery Saturday morning to repair his fractured collarbone.
Valentino Rossi – 5th“There are good and bad aspects to today’s race.
On the positive side, we reduced the gap to the front, and the others in front of me weren’t so far ahead.
On the other hand, I’m obviously not happy with fifth place, because our goal was to do better than that.
To tell the truth, we really could have done a little better today but last night we thought of a change to try in the warm-up and the session turned out to be wet.
The change worked quite well, so we found ourselves at a crossroads as to whether or not to blindly use it in the race.
We tried it, and that may have been a mistake because the bike moved a lot on corner entry.
It was sliding, and I didn’t have enough grip, so I was stuck for the whole race, unable to attack Dovizioso and Spies.
Otherwise, I think I could have had a slightly better pace and perhaps battled with them.
Anyway, we’re not too far off, and we’re working well, which we need to continue doing.
The championship is long and we’re still fully focused on both the GP11 and 2012, and we have no intention of backing off.
” Cal Crutchlow – 7th “That’s my best result in MotoGP and of course I’m happy, but I’d rather have got a result like that in a more entertaining race.
It was just a test of concentration for most of the race once I’d passed Nicky and it was quite lonely.
I caught him really quickly but once I got by I’d used up my rear tyre trying to chase him down because I struggled for grip after that.
When the spots of rain came it was quite difficult.
The white flags were being waved like there was a monsoon but there was only rain in the last three corners.
Part of me was looking forward to having a flag-to-flag race because it might have given me a chance of fighting with the group at the front, but the rain never got worse than a few spots on the visor.
I still managed to pull away from Nicky but I finished 26 seconds behind Casey, and that is not too bad considering I’d never seen this place before.
If I hadn’t backed off a little I’m sure I could have finished about 20 seconds back and that was good enough for the top six last year.
Sixth to eighth position is where I’m at the moment but it is a good confidence boost as well to finish as the top non-factory rider.
Nobody can ride this package harder than I am at the moment and now I’m looking forward to Silverstone.
I’m sure the support is going to be incredible and I’m really looking forward to it.
”Nicky Hayden – 8th“I thought I could do better than that.
I actually got a good start and the tyres came right in, so the first couple laps I thought we might be on for a good result.
We used up the tyre really quickly though, and almost immediately I was spinning a lot, especially in the long corners.
We had some ideas to maybe help that, but we couldn’t try them in the morning because it was wet, and it was too much of a gamble to try in the race.
The rest of the bike felt really good.
When the raindrops came, you definitely had to stay on your toes.
I ended up in eighth, where we qualified, which I’m not thrilled with since normally we’ve been able to move up in the races.
It will be a short week, so we need to understand the data and see what we get in Silverstone.
” Loris Capirossi – 9th “Today’s result was definitely good.
I fought hard, and I don’t even know how many passes I made in the race.
It’s actually hard to find a negative; even the start was quite good.
I want to consider Barcelona a starting point for a new direction.
Now we shouldn’t get lost with bad choices, and we’ll work like we did over this weekend.
I would like to thank my team for helping me today, because our result is due to their efficiency.
”Karel Abraham – 10th“My start wasn’t very good, but at least I overtook Aoyama Fortunately I avoided the crash by this maneuver (he ran off track) It was a hard battle.
I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to pass Loris Capirossi on the finish line, but despite that I’m satisfied with this result and another top ten finish.
Fortunately my injury did not affect my performance.
”Hector Barbera – 11th“It was a hard race, in which we experienced the problems typical of this weekend.
The start was more or less ok, but after six laps the bike started to slide and we had a lack of grip on the rear.
We have looked at the telemetry, but we still don’t understand why this happened.
The moment that I opened the throttle, the rear wheel started to step out and I didn’t have forward motion.
Corner entry wasn’t bad on the fast turns, but when I tried to accelerate out it was hard.
To be frank, I didn’t have much fun riding today.
We will try to make some big changes for the next race.
We saw Julito’s crash just before the MotoGP race started and it is a real pity that he is hurt –especially as it wasn’t his fault.
I want to send my best wishes to him.
I am convinced that he will be back soon, because he is a tough guy.
”Alvaro Bautista – 12th“I am very frustrated with today because nobody really expected this result.
All weekend we have been more competitive than we were in the race, and also in the wet this morning we went very well.
I don’t know what happened in the race, but I just didn’t have the same feeling as I did in the practice.
I felt like I had less grip from the bike and it was difficult to stop the bike and enter into the corners.
I fought for a top-10 position, but when it started to rain in the last part of the track I wasn’t able to go very fast through there and lost some time to the other guys around me.
We have to continue working and put this behind us, I’m very disappointed with what happened here, because as I said I didn’t expect this.
We now have some races in a row so it will be good to get in a rhythm and it will help me to recover to my full potential on the bike.
”Randy De Puniet – DNF“I’m not at all happy with how things went, as I’m going through a difficult period.
At Le Mans, I was out after just one lap, and things weren’t much different today.
I don’t know what happened with Aoyama; I saw him coming into me while I was exiting the first corner.
It’s really a shame because I was very motivated.
I had a good feeling with the bike in the early kilometers, and I thought I could do well.
I hope that I haven’t hurt my ankle.
It makes a strange noise when I walk, so I hope the ligaments aren’t broken.
”Colin Edwards – DNS“I ‘m a little bit disappointed with the decision not to let me ride because while it’s not a lifelong ambition never to miss a MotoGP race, it was a run I was pretty proud of.
I understand the decision but my shoulder feels great.
Dr Xavier Mir has done an amazing job on my collarbone because it was smashed, but it was never my intention to do the full race.
I just wanted to start, do a couple of laps and pull in.
I only considered it because I was here in Barcelona and it seemed pointless breaking the streak.
But I’m too big and too old to get upset and I’m going to rest up now and concentrate on getting ready for Silverstone.
I know I can race next weekend and I’m already looking forward to it.
I can’t remember the last time I missed a race and I definitely don’t like watching on TV, so I’m desperate to get back working with my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew.
”