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2007-06-22 Donington Friday MotoGP rider claims
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 Rainy Friday at Donington was not someting that MotoGP riders have dreamed about - at least not most of them. Not many of them said nice words about grip and security of the British track neither. Read rider claims after day 1 of free practice for Nickel and Dime British Grand Prix.
Casey Stoner - 1st - 1:43.749
I think everyone is running pretty much the softest wets. I used the same tyres for the whole day today and they still looked pretty new. It's ridiculous really, I don't think any other British track is this bad in the wet, and to have a world championship race here with bikes doing these speeds is just a little bit wrong. Since they resurfaced the track it's got worse than what it was before in the wet, it's become dangerous. For tomorrow we're going to see if we can make the tyres work a bit harder and hopefully pick up a few tenths. We'd already made a few improvements for the wet at Mugello - we changed something in the geometry to help me get more weight transfer on the rear, that's why we were pretty fast and confident in the wet there. It doesn't really matter if it's wet or dry on Sunday, we've all got to race in the same conditions. But the way this circuit is at the moment, I think a dry race would be a better option for everyone.
Nicky Hayden – 2nd:
It was a pretty wet, cold, slippery, nasty day out there, but that’s probably as much fun as I’ve had on the bike since Valencia last year. So I’m not going to complain about cold fingers! The conditions were varying a bit and there were times when the rain was heavier than others, but overall my bike felt pretty good in the wet and I had a good feeling. We’ll be looking at a few details to improve it into the corners and mid-corner, but coming out of the corners I’ve got really good traction and the Michelins are working really well under hard acceleration. We need to get things working a little better when the rain is really heavy, but overall the bike’s working pretty well and so are the tyres. I enjoyed it today. Now we’ve basically got to see what the weather does. I feel like we’ve got a really good start to the weekend. Hopefully if it does dry out we can carry it over to those conditions too.
Dani Pedrosa – 3rd:
I’ve been improving in the wet this year and it’s something I’ve been working on and thinking about, so it’s nice to finish on top of the timesheets in a wet session for the first time – I’m happy about that. Today it was raining all day so we had two hours of practice to look for the right set-up and tyres for these conditions. The feeling from the bike is good and today has been useful. It’s better when the conditions are fully wet like this because we can really learn something about the set-up we need and the tyres that work best. When it’s half dry and half wet the track changes every lap so it’s good that we had fairly consistent conditions today. It’s a good start to the weekend but there’s a long way to go and we have to keep our concentration because things could change tomorrow and we must be ready for this.
Randy de Puniet - 4th:
The conditions were bad and vision wasn’t great but I’m happy about the bike: I had a good feeling and I’m confident. We’ve been working on the tyres and the mapping, which are the most important things here. My knee’s been painful but after this weekend there’s a break, so I hope it will be completely better for the Sachsenring. Tomorrow, we will work on more of the same, especially tyre choice, depending on the weather
Chris Vermeulen - 5th:
It’s great to be back here at Donington – but not in these conditions! I spent a few years in Britain doing the British Championship and I used to live here, so this is really like a second home GP for me. Today’s conditions weren’t the greatest as it’s been raining all day and the water was at different levels all over the surface - so it was difficult to get a consistent lap out there. My team have worked really hard on the chassis and we have made some improvements there, but we now have to see what the weather is going to do for the rest of the weekend.
Colin Edwards - 6th
Today was very adventurous! We started this morning with a set-up we had used before and it wasn't terrible, but when it started to dry out towards the end we couldn't go any faster and ended up several seconds off the pace. I knew that wasn't right; despite the recent results I know I'm good in the wet, I always have been, so there had to be an answer! This afternoon Michelin came to us with a trick up their sleeve, we tried it and it worked. We were suddenly five seconds faster and things felt good again. We've tried so many different things over the last few races and nothing has worked, but this little change seems to have solved it. I was a lot more comfortable going fast today than I have been going slowly lately! So finally I want to say thank you to Michelin for coming up with the solution, and to all my guys who've been working very hard. The conditions weren't great today and there was a bit of hydroplaning going on, I wanted to push harder this afternoon but to be honest it wasn't worth risking the gravel for a couple of tenths, we'll save it for tomorrow!
Anthony West - 7th:
We had a few problems with the rear this morning but now it’s a lot better. And it’s really odd but the bike’s becoming more comfortable even though the back tyre’s done both sessions, so with a new tyre I’m sure we could go even quicker and get more traction. At the moment, I’m really happy. I’m excited to be here and today was a good day. I was worried about the rain this morning but it’s turned out well and I like working with this team: they seem to understand what I want. We’ve been trying things out and playing around, seeing what I like and what I don’t like. A lot of testing in a short time.
John Hopkins - 8th:
Well the whole day has gone well considering the rain. We just wanted to put some laps together and try a new tyre from Bridgestone. We managed to do both of those and more. I didn’t want to push that hard today as you can so easily make a mistake in the rain and Sunday’s race is more important than a fast time in a wet practice session – and we know we can be in a better position whether it is wet or dry! We have a few things to try tomorrow, but I am eager to get out there on a dry track and see what the GSV-R800 can do around here!
Marco Melandri - 9th:
It’s been a difficult day. This morning we started out with the setting from Le Mans but the track conditions were actually very different. The track surface is really slippery and the bike was difficult to ride. In the afternoon we went back to the standard chassis, which we had already tested in the wet. I managed to knock three seconds off my best time from the morning but we still have work to do. I’m fast in the first half of the track, where I can let the bike run, but I’m struggling in the slower final section, where the power comes on a little more briskly. We’ll try and improve that area tomorrow.
Valentino Rossi - 10th
For sure we haven't seen the best of the English weather today and we have had two days with a lot of rain! This track is very difficult like this and there isn't much grip when there's a lot of water; it's hard to ride. This morning I crashed very early on but luckily I was ok, although I have a little bit of swelling in my arm. Then we used a tyre which was a little bit too hard for the conditions, to be honest we only did a few laps with everything right today! This afternoon again we didn't have a lot of grip and it was very wet, but I can see that Colin is much faster this afternoon and this has given me a lot of hope for tomorrow. I've talked to him and we have some things to try tomorrow. Overall I'm positive, we have some things to improve and today wasn't perfect but I think we have good potential.
Alex Barros - 11th:
For me it wasn’t an easy day, even if in the afternoon I improved my feeling, I’m not completely satisfied in reason of the time I got, it would be better. I would have more comfort to ride, but unfortunately we still haven’t find out the best solution. In braking I’m quite good, but in turns we lost a lot of time; especially in T2 and T3 , I’m not completely steady. Despite this, I’m confident for tomorrow, and I think we can really improve.
Alex Hofmann - 12th:
It was a very demanding day for me, we had some difficulties to found the most suitable feeling, but I think that was a common problem because of track condition which weren’t so good. My difficult was due especially by bike rear, it wasn’t completely stable and we lost a lot of speed in the curves. We tried different solution, but we aren’t satisfied because the lap wasn’t the one we wanted. I hope to be able to exploit at the maximum tomorrow’s session to find the best possible race configuration and to do good qualifying practise. On this track is really important to get favourable position on starting grid because straight is very short.
Toni Elias - 13th:
The rain made life difficult for us in free practices today. The track was really slippery and I didn’t feel comfortable on my bike. I can’t say I’m happy because I’m down on the time sheets, three seconds off the top. We’re struggling but we’ll keep working on the chassis and suspension to see if we can find a better setting for this difficult and technical circuit.
Loris Capirossi - 14th
This morning was really bad. We had some trouble with the engine set-up and we've not been able to find the right settings. This afternoon we started with a different electronics set-up and although it was a bit better it's still not right. I can't ride well because the bike feels too aggressive, so we need to analyse the data and understand why. We don't have so many of the rain tyres we want to use here, so I used the same front and rear for both sessions. They aren't perfect but they are pretty good and their endurance is beyond doubt, given that I used the same tyres for the whole day! Joking apart, I was really worried this morning but now I'm feeling better, even if I'm not totally happy yet. The track conditions are the same as usual when it rains here - slippery, with a lot of water onto the track, but still manageable because it didn't rain too hard.
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