Seventeen MotoGP riders entered the race and only twelve made it to the chequered flag at the Jerez ‘Beyond Thunderdome” track.
Most of the riders had big issues with their rain tires that were chewed up by the abrasiveness of the circuit, however kudos to those who managed to stay upright in a crash fest and finish.
Here’s what the rest had to say after today’s second round of the season, while we’ll have to wait almost a whole month for the Estoril GP.
Karel Abraham – 7th“I am very happy with this result, but I am sorry that I crashed because I could even finish in fifth place.
We rode side-by-side with Aoyama, but unfortunately I made small mistake and crashed,“ Cal Crutchlow – 8th “I never thought I’d crash in MotoGP and still get a top ten 10! That was an unbelievable race and not one of the easiest I’ve had in my career.
The conditions were so unpredictable that it was hard to get any grip and I was having lots of moments with the front and rear tyre, but so was everybody else.
I could see people were making mistakes but I just tried to keep my head.
When I got into fifth I felt pretty comfortable though I wanted it to rain again because the tyres were wearing pretty fast.
I was gaining on Nicky really quick and he was in fourth, so there’s no doubt the way I was catching him that I was thinking about a podium.
I’ve nothing to lose so I was pushing and I went down at Turn 9.
I actually lost the rear but then pushed the front and I was down.
I’m not going to be too hard on myself crashing when I was battling for a podium in MotoGP.
I’m happy because before this morning I’d never tried the bike in the rain, so to be where I was is a good sign.
I was in the top ten in the wet and dry on a track I’d never seen before Thursday, so I’m making good progress.
”Toni Elias – 9th“Basically I am not happy about the race result because my feeling on the bike was still bad, but ninth position in these conditions is a positive result for me and the team.
I know I have been lucky because many riders crashed out and I was able to finish the race although the tyre situation was very difficult for everybody because we just had the warm-up session in the wet.
We must continue our job to improve our future performances.
”John Hopkins – 10th“Well, I finished where I wanted to – I certainly wanted to get into the top-10! That was the goal for the whole weekend, but I did wonder if it was going to be a reality when I started on Friday.
We pushed right from the start of practice and chipped away little-by-little to bring the lap-time down and just went about the job as professionally as possible.
My main target at the start of the race was to try and jump up as many places as possible and get up into the group, because I knew that if I was in there I would be able to follow some guys and do the lap-times.
We made up some positions early on, although I dropped back a few places and made a few mistakes – including a huge moment in turn three when I lost the rear and hit the paint – the bike was 90º sideways underneath me, when I should have been going forward! I was able to keep it upright and hang on to a group that included a couple of Ducati’s and some other guys in a battle for eighth.
Then suddenly the tyres dropped off a lot, but this was my first time in the wet for a while on a MotoGP bike and I’d never used the Bridgestone wets, so we didn’t have the electronics set completely in the right way and I chewed up the tyre way too much at the beginning of the race.
I dropped off the pace quite dramatically for the last part of the race and I saw many riders crashing, so I knew I was close to the top-10, but my main aim was to finish and bring the bike home.
Loris Capirossi – 11th“I see today as a positive day even if I finished so far from the first positions as I had to ride with a a broken spark plug.
We could have done better, we understood some things, we will try to put them in practice for Estoril.
The break arrive at the right time, in fact, I’ll go to Monaco tomorrow for a consultation with the head of the hospital.
I hope I will be able to begin soon therapy on the shoulder to face the next race in the best possible way”.
Colin Edwards – DNF“That’s pretty tough to take because getting a podium in MotoGP is not something you get chance to get every week.
The race was unbelievable because it was all about who could keep it on two wheels the longest.
I was quite a way back at one stage but just didn’t want to do anything stupid and crash and I just felt more and more confident to push.
N icky came back to me really quickly and I knew I’d have no problem passing him because he was in trouble with his tyres.
I didn’t have a lot more grip but I pulled away from him and the podium was right in front of me.
The bike didn’t feel great coming out of the last corner to start the last lap and by the time I got to the first corner it just stopped.
Obviously I’m disappointed but I can’t change what happened.
I wanted that podium for my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 because they are awesome.
But we move on and try to bounce back at Estoril.
” Randy De Puniet – DNF“I’m disappointed and angry about what happened.
I had a bad start, I was relegated in the last positions.
Then I started pushing, I was doing well, until I found major problems with the front wheel.
I tried to change the mapping, but I was not able to do it.
I found it extremely difficult to manage the bike and when I slipped I couldn’t manage to restart the bike.
Now I only have to think about doing well at Estoril, because this beginning of the championship hasn’t been good at all.