|
|
2006-08-20 Brno post-race interview - all riders
 Be first to comment this story
 Ducati Marlboro Team rider Loris Capirossi rode a remarkable race at Brno today, leaving the rest of the MotoGP grid trailing in his wake for his second victory of 2006. The Italian led from start to finish, increasing his advantage at an astonishing rate until he was eighth seconds ahead, he then eased his pace to win by a very comfortable 4.9 seconds. Read impressions of all riders after race.
Loris Capirossi, race winner
This has been an unbelievable weekend for me! After Friday morning I wanted to take the plane back to Monaco because the bike wasn't working so well, but after that we did a great job, with strong support from Bridgestone.
Yesterday I could see my rhythm on race tyres was really good, a little better than everyone else's, so this morning I told my team that my dream was to make a great start, push hard during the first few laps, make a gap and I saw from my pitboard that my advantage was growing bigger and bigger. I would like to say from my heart thanks to the team and all the sponsors who believe in us. Of course, I am also a little upset about my bad luck at Barcelona but the three-week break before this race was a big help, it allowed me to rest and get my fitness back, so I came here feeling 100 per cent.
I don't want to talk about the world championship yet. I will just do my best at the last five races and we will see, you never know. We stay here to test tomorrow. First we try some new tyres on the GP6, then in the afternoon maybe we try the new 800. I will be like a kid tonight, too excited to sleep!
Valentino Rossi - 2nd
It was a good race today and I am very happy with the weekend. Obviously starting from pole position you hope that you can win but today Loris had a completely different pace to the rest of us and I couldn’t believe the gap he made! We weren’t perfect today and we still had a few problems, but anyway I was able to do a good race and fight hard to the end. I had a great battle with Pedrosa with many good overtakes, which was great fun, especially since I finally managed to finish in front of him! Even though I didn’t win today this is a very important result for the championship; we are now third and we’ve gained on Pedrosa and Hayden. After this weekend the situation is much clearer for us with the bike and the tyres and now we have two days of testing, during which we have some new things to try in order to help us be even more competitive for the final five races. This weekend my M1 worked well from Friday morning, which is very encouraging after the problems we’ve had during practice this season. Everyone at Yamaha has worked so hard to come back to this level so I want to thank my team and all the engineers. Now there are five more races and five riders who can still fight for the championship, so I think it’s going to be a very exciting end to the season!
Dani Pedrosa - 3rd
Third was good for me seeing as I started from ninth. I made a good start, although it could have been better. And I was strong on the brakes and could overtake. When I caught Valentino I waited because it was quite early in the race and Capirossi was already gone. We made some good moves, all very aggressive. We were pushing hard, but I made a mistake, lost a second and could not recover the time.
Kenny Roberts - 4th
I hated to see Nicky (Hayden) back there, because hes leading the championship, and I know every point for him is valuable. Once I got past him he was boxed in. I had a chance to get past Casey (Stoner) and Marco (Melandri) later on the same lap. Its hard following people all race long, then to try and open up a bit of a gap when theyre trying as hard as they can. So I just tried to keep it tidy, and we made it.
Marco Melandri - 5th
Considering my position on the grid, I have to be satisfied. However, I expected a better result at this circuit. After making a good start I climbed through the field and made it up into fourth position. I had a good rhythm and was lapping strongly but could not attack when I wanted. Pedrosa and Rossi pulled away from me and I could not catch them again. I have closed the gap on Nicky by four points although I wanted a better result. All the team did a good job.
Casey Stoner - 6th
That was hard race. There was a lot of overtaking going on sometimes three times in one lap. But I didnt have enough rear tyre left to race for fourth place. Theyd already destroyed themselves when I was behind Hayden. That was close racing and while I would have liked a better result sixth will have to do for now. I really needed an extra Red Bull this morning.
John Hopkins - 7th
I would say that this has probably been my best race of the year so far. It’s not my best result but as far as an all out race it was good! We didn’t get the best of starts but we were able to hang on to the lead group and from there try to pick the other guys off one by one – it wasn’t until the late stages that I was able to do that. Going into the last lap I knew that I had something for Nakano and Hayden. I made some manoeuvres and got by them both and then blocked them till the end. It was really good and I am happy with the result. I want to say a big thanks to my crew this weekend, they have done a great job and worked their butts off! Now we have a two week break so the mechanics can have a nice rest and then we will be ready for the three fly-aways. They are all good tracks for us and we need to get right up there in the points!
Shinya Nakano - 8th
I got away from the start pretty well, but then I had a big slide halfway round the first lap, which lost me some time and dropped me to the back of the group fighting for fourth. While it was possible to match the pace of the guys in front of me, passing was a different matter. I was right on the limit just staying in touch, and with such a big group battling for position, it was difficult to even see a way past the riders in front. On the final lap I decided to have a go at Nicky Hayden but, as I lined myself up for the pass, John Hopkins charged up the inside of both of us to steal seventh place. I managed to get up the inside of Nicky going into the final corner and was able to hold on to the line to take eighth place, and the all-important championship points. Overall, although I would obviously have preferred to finish higher up the order, I'm happy enough with this result ahead of the overseas races.
Nicky Hayden - 9th
I had a few issues in the race, but Im not going to go into them. The bottom line is that this is not the sort of result we wanted here this weekend. One week you win and the next week youre ninth thats the level of competition were dealing with here. Ive had some tough results before and battled through, and thats what well try to do again.
Colin Edwards - 10th
At the beginning things felt alright and over the first few laps I was actually quite excited. I was able to be quite aggressive and pass a few people, but then after a while things just went downhill. The balance of the bike didn’t feel right and I just couldn’t keep the same level. Then the tyre started to go off after about eight laps and that just acted as a limiter and my pace went right down. I was fighting really hard just to keep the pace I was running and it was nowhere near fast enough to be competitive. The bike didn’t feel perfect under braking either and that makes life difficult here!
We’ve spent all weekend playing around, trying to find the right balance but we just couldn’t find exactly what we needed. Honestly we’ve worked hard all weekend but things just weren’t right today. We’ve got two days of testing now and plenty of work to do if we’re going to improve for the final few races.
Toni Elias - 11th
Im satisfied with the work weve done, but I cant be happy with the result. I didnt start well and had no rhythm over the first ten laps. It was then I started to lap better and felt more comfortable. The team did a good job and I hope that continues over the next couple of days testing were going to do here.
Chris Vermeulen - 12th
It was difficult starting from the fifth row of the grid. I got a reasonably good start but with so many guys in front it is hard to go where you want to go. The thing was that all race there were fifteen guys all going very fast and I struggled a bit at the beginning with grip, but as everybody else’s grip levels came down mine stayed the same and I was able to do good lap times. I had a good battle with Tamada and Elias, but it is still quite difficult to pass a Honda - they do have an advantage in horsepower, but our advantage in grip levelled us out and I had a good fight with them. I managed to get Tamada and finished 12th and only 16 seconds off the podium, which from a bad weekend’s start is a good finish. We have learned a lot here and I am sure we can take it on in the next few races.
Makoto Tamada - 13th
My start was not so bad but after three four laps the rear wheel was spinning and I had little traction, I could not go forward. Then I didnt have a good feeling with the bike and dropped back. Then in the middle part of the race I was getting more traction and the bike felt much better and I could get closer to the group ahead of me.
Randy de Puniet - 14th
A mistake going into the first turn cost me dear today. I got a reasonably good start, but then I got on the brakes too early going into the first turn and allowed too many people to come past me. I managed to find a way past Alex Hofmann and, by the mid-point of the race, I'd closed onto the battle between Chris Vermeulen and Toni Elias. At this point I thought it would be possible to pass both, but then, with just eight laps left to run, the rear tyre started sliding whenever I got hard on the gas out of the turns, and I was unable to maintain the same pace. Although I am disappointed with my finishing position today, it is good to have gained more experience on the Ninja ZX-RR, and I'm happy to have another race finish under my belt.
Carlos Checa - 15th
Considering yesterday nothing worked, today we should be satisfied with the job we did. We changed quite a lot on the bike but we were not too radical with the alterations we made. This morning the bike felt a lot better but in the different conditions this afternoon after a few laps we again had chattering and it increased during the race so by the end we had quite a lot. The tyre wasn’t so bad even though I was getting some movement in the acceleration area but the chattering was the main limitation.
We knew it was going to be difficult today because many were doing 1” 58s lap times and we were struggling to match those times but we did quite a lot of laps in the 59 sec bracket and to keep that pace until the end was the most positive thing we can take from here. Also keeping in mind that we couldn’t race with the tyres we have been using for the last two races, with the chattering problems we are having, today’s race was fine.
Alex Hofmann - 16th
For sure it didn't help not having much time on my race tyres during practice. In the race I ran into a wall, whatever I did I couldn't improve. Whenever I tried to attack I almost highsided, it was impossible to do more. The race was close, so if you lose just a few tenths a lap you are out of the game. I really wanted to do well here, so I'm disappointed.
James Ellison - 17th
That result was not what I wanted at all. I’m really disappointed. After yesterday I was definitely hoping for a top 15 finish but I was secretly thinking that a top 10 might happen. To finish 17th is a huge let down. I know I can do it - that’s the frustrating thing to me. My lap times to Carlos weren’t too bad for a few laps. He could keep that consistency with his times but after four or five laps my times dropped off. I lost traction on the rear exactly like what happened at Donington. I was getting a little bit of chatter but it was mainly rear wheel grip making it spin up everywhere.
Tomorrow during this test I will get to test the frame Carlos is running so hopefully, we will be able to find a cure to these problems we have been having and move forwards pretty quickly so I can score some decent results that I know I’m capable of getting
Ivan Silva - 18th
I'm happy because I ended another MotoGP race. I managed to improve my laptimes and I rode faster at the end of the race when the tyres were consumed. This means a lot to me, we made good progresses. The Team has been assisting me very well during the whole weekend, helping me to correct my driving style and to be more regular. I would like to thank once again Luis d'Antín, PRAMAC and all the sponsors for this new opportunity and their trust in me. I remain at their disposal for any other eventuality.
Jose Luis Cardoso - DNF
I retired myself because the tyre was much worse than during the warm-up. For the whole weekend, we've been having many difficulties with the tyres and also technically speaking, which made us lose much time in the practice. During the race, we used the best tyre we had but it was worse than predicted. That's why going on didn't seem the best solution to me. In this situation, personally and sportingly speaking, I can't be at 100%.
|
Back to MotoGP news home
|
|
|
