We’ve got all the rider quotes from after yesterday’s exciting MotoGP qualifying session at Laguna Seca, where Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner battled one blistering lap after another to try to grap the pole position and there’s still a mystery if Stoner used a hard or softer tire to do his best laps.
Jorge Lorenzo – 1st“Pole position isn’t the race but it does help so I’m really happy to have got this fifth pole.
Everyone is working very well and this shows it once again.
I didn’t think it would be possible today because Casey was so fast but I decided to give it a try and pushed as hard as I could and here we are! I don’t know what to expect tomorrow, it will be a hard race for sure because Dani and Casey are very strong, but we will do the best we can to fight to the end and at least make the podium.
I’m excited because it’s always a special race here with a great atmosphere.
”Casey Stoner – 2nd“We’re closer to the front than last week but we still need to improve the bike before tomorrow.
I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t make full use of the session this afternoon and ended up going back to the setting we had this morning.
We tried a few different things that weren’t really working and unfortunately one of the settings took a long time to change so we wasted time there.
To be honest I was happy to post the time I did – I thought we could have gone a bit quicker today considering how good the bike felt from yesterday to this morning but we just didn’t take that extra step.
Hopefully we can take it in the warm-up and have our most competitive race of the season tomorrow.
” Andrea Dovizioso – 3rd “I’m very happy about this session because this is my first front row of the season and qualifying was an area that we had to improve.
We were fast from the beginning today and I have to thank the team because they’ve done a good job this weekend.
Yesterday and also today I have been losing some time in T4, but for the final qualifying lap I pushed at 100 per cent and did my best final sector time – which gave me my fastest lap time and a place on the front row.
I have a good race pace but we still need to improve a little because Stoner and Lorenzo are very fast.
There is still a gap but we are not too far away.
I think the race pace tomorrow will be between the high 1m 21s and 1m 22 dead, and I’m confident I can fight with the others.
Plus, starting from first row makes this easier.
For the tyre choice we will probably go with the soft option rear.
Our machine balance is good and we have a positive feeling on this track so I’m confident for tomorrow.
”Dani Pedrosa – 4th “We’ve improved the feeling from yesterday and this morning our pace was pretty good – we were closer to the other riders in terms of lap times.
This afternoon with the soft rear at the end of the session we didn’t go quicker, but the front of the second row isn’t a bad place to start and we could probably have been further forward if we hadn’t had a bit of an issue with some vibration at the rear of the machine on my final run.
We put a lot of laps on the Bridgestone tyres this afternoon – more than 30 on the same tyre – and they are working well.
In the warm-up tomorrow we need to make a few final adjustments to the machine settings to improve our race pace by a tenth or two – we’ve got a few things to try.
The choice of race tyre will be important so that we have the best feeling for race distance.
I think we can be competitive if we make the most of the warm-up well tomorrow.
”Ben Spies – 5th“It’s a little frustrating to be so close to my first front row but I’m still really happy with fifth position.
The last stint was good and I was actually on a front row lap for sure at the end.
I was a tenth quicker and then Kallio unfortunately crashed at the Corkscrew.
I saw a big dust cloud and yellow flags were being waved.
I was really scared that someone was on the downhill part because you can’t see going in there.
I wanted to play it safe and I lost a tenth there for sure and that definitely kept me off the front row.
I’m happy being in the middle of row two and besides Casey and Lorenzo, I’m in the battle for the podium and that’s where I want to be.
I couldn’t be happier with that and if I get a good start and stay out of trouble then I have the pace to fight for the podium.
For the win, those guys are going way too fast now.
You never give up but they are on another level right now from everybody.
I’ll ride as hard as I can and have some fun in front of the home fans.
It’s been great to come home and see lots of support and hopefully I can give them something to cheer tomorrow.
” Valentino Rossi – 6th“We didn’t go too badly today but we need to improve our setting a little bit to get closer to the leaders.
Lorenzo and Stoner are very fast but after that there are a few riders quite close together, including me, so it’s not too bad.
I think it’s going to be very difficult tomorrow because this track is a lot harder for me than Sachsenring, but I hope I can do a good race.
There are a few corners where we know we can be a bit faster so tomorrow morning we will try to make some small changes to the setting to allow that, then I need to get a good start.
My leg feels better than yesterday, which is good, the problem today is the shoulder because my left one isn’t strong enough to compensate completely for the lack of power in my right one and now I have some pain in both! My hope for tomorrow is to be able to finish the race without too much pain and to do the best we can in the circumstances.
”Nicky Hayden – 7th“To qualify seventh with such a big gap to Jorge isn’t good enough here at my home race so I’m obviously disappointed but we’re not going home yet.
We’ll be back tomorrow ready to step our game up and get in there.
The team did a good job from the morning to the afternoon today, which was the first real step we’ve made this weekend, and really we’re only three tenths from the front row so it’s not too bad in that regard.
It’s my home race so I want to get amongst them, have some fun and put on a good show.
”Colin Edwards – 8th“I’ve been riding really hard all weekend and giving it my all for the home fans, but I seem to be stuck around seventh and eighth position.
I’m not sure what else I can do because I’m putting in my maximum effort and feel good on the bike.
The goal is to try and get away with the bunch from Dovizioso down because the top two are way ahead of the rest of us.
I need to find some speed in the final section where I lose a bit too much time and now we’ve got to figure out which rear tyre to use in the race.
I was convinced yesterday that I’d run the hard option front and rear.
But now I’m considering the soft rear.
There’s quite a big difference in lap time but I’m wondering how good the soft tyre will be at the end of the race.
This is a really important race for me and for Monster so I’ll be giving my all for a strong result tomorrow.
”Marco Simoncelli – 9th “I’m quite happy with that.
We were struggling yesterday but that was normal because it was my first time at the track and considering everything it wasn’t so bad.
We weren’t brilliant this morning, when we spent the session on a used tyre and made a few changes to the setting that didn’t quite work.
Thanks to the help of our Japanese technician from HRC, who made a suggestion about the set-up, the bike immediately felt better and I was able to ride alone and make progress.
I wasn’t following anybody for my fastest lap so that gives me a lot of confidence for the race.
I’m happy I know my way around Laguna Seca now and I think I have the Corkscrew sorted out, so all in all I am satisfied.
”Hector Barbera – 10th“I am really happy although I would have obviously preferred to be on the third row.
I am only a tenth of a second off eighth place but tenth is still good for me.
The team has worked really well and I really enjoyed myself on the bike.
Hopefully tomorrow I can have a good start and an even better race, to improve on my best result so far.
On one hand I’m happy because everything comes much easier when you’re enjoying yourself on the bike but at the same time we are showing that we are competitive and there is no reason for us to back off – you always have to strive to improve.
I’ll be going out to give my best tomorrow and a lot will depend on my start and the first few laps because our race pace is there.
The best thing about today was that we kept improving little set-up details on the Ducati and made progress throughout.
I think we have gathered a lot of experience over the eight races so far and we’ve learned from our mistakes, so if we can put it all into practice tomorrow I think I can be fighting for a top eight finish, which would be a good result for us.
”Marco Melandri – 11th “It has been a difficult day and we have struggled a lot.
The new electronics package definitely has a lot of potential but we need more time to set it up – we are still a long way from getting the most out of it.
In qualifying this afternoon (Mika) Kallio got in my way in the Corkscrew when I was on my fastest lap and I lost it.
But that doesn’t cover up the fact that we are still some way off where we should be.
”Loris Capirossi – 12th“From a complete disaster yesterday, today is much better.
Every run I did I went quicker and the feeling got better all the time.
We made quite big improvements on the bike and we tried to use very little traction control to make the bike more stable.
The engineers worked really well throughout all of today and modified the bike a lot to get the right set-up.
I think that after today the bike feels more consistent than it has in the past and this is very important for us.
Overall it’s not too bad and I think that tomorrow we can make a good job of things and get a positive result.
” Aleix Espargarò – 13th “This track is wonderful but you have to know every bit.
I improved by almost three tenths of a second my best lap time of yesterday’s free practice, but it was not enough to gain a better position.
A pity, because this morning I was again in tenth position.
I haven’t had a good lap pace during my last exit from the pits, I did my best lap after just five laps but I didn’t improve my lap time in the remaining six laps before the checkered flag, I had traffic problems or I made some small mistakes that did not allow me to be fast.
Tomorrow morning I’ll try to take advantage of the entire warm up to get more feeling with the circuit.
I’ll give everything to get a good result.
”Alvaro Bautista – 14th“Today I’m much happier than I was yesterday.
I was a hard first practice and last night I thought a lot about the track, because it was incredible to ride here for the first time.
Today I have a much clearer idea of the track and where my reference points need to be.
I went much faster today than yesterday and I felt I was able to push on a used tyre and get a good rhythm.
For qualifying we tested the harder compound tyres, but my feeling wasn’t as good as with the softer ones, so I think we will be using the soft option for the race.
I was happy with my qualifying lap-time because I have made a big step over the two days and now I want to look at the telemetry to see where the places are on the track that I can still improve.
Tomorrow I’ll be happy to take some more steps and improve my time and feeling in the race.
I hope that for the race I can go faster and I’m very confident that if I can get a good start I can stay with the middle group and battle for a top-10 finish.
” Mika Kallio -15th “This is not the right way! This morning I missed half of the second free practice because I slipped.
Today I clocked my best lap time during the last full lap on the track that I made.
I was further improving my time but I was too fast at the corkscrew and I found myself on the inflated air protection on the runway edge.
We are more than two seconds away from the pole position and this suggests that the situation for tomorrow’s race does not seem the best.
Me and my Team will try to work the best we can during tomorrow warm up to climb position during the race.
” Alex de Angelis – 16th “I had many problems this morning, because the bike was not right in any way, especially with the front I had problems.
But in the qualifying we found a solution, mainly the problem with the grip was almost solved.
Then I was nearly 1.
5 seconds faster straight away and that is great.
Of course we have to continue like this and improve more, but I am happy that the direction is the right one.
At the end of the session I really started to have fun riding the bike.
It is not enough yet and we still have a lot to do, but I am much more satisfied than I was yesterday.
”Roger Lee Hayden – 17th “Today was much better! We went almost 2 seconds faster than yesterday and it was a nice feeling because the Team have been working hard to improve the bike for me.
Even though we are the last bike on the grid we are improving every lap and with the changes that we will make for the warm up I am confident we can make a good race.
I am quite happy with the way qualifying has went: all I am missing is time on the bike.
It is such a good feeling to race at my home GP with all my family and friends supporting me and I want to say a massive Thank You to the Team for this opportunity and for the way they are making the bike work for me.