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2006-10-28 MotoGP Interview - Top 10 Valencia qualifiers
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 Last race of the season that will take place tomorrow at Valencia will decide MotoGP Champion for 2006 between Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. However, most of other riders are also aiming high tomorrow, so we may expect lot of excitement on the track. Read claims from riders in post race Interview.
Valentino Rossi 1st – 1:31.002
We knew we had great potential with the qualifying tyre because we tried it this morning in the free practice and then this afternoon I did three very good laps, each one better and better and then the final lap was very fast. To do a 1’31.0 was really incredible. This pole position is crucial for me because it is an important part of my race tactics to start from the front. The session couldn’t have gone much better for us because we have a couple of other riders between myself and Nicky. It is a shame Colin is not one of them but he has a good race pace so hopefully he can help me out like he did at Estoril. The team has done a great job this weekend, especially with the balance of the bike. Now we need to make one or two small changes for tomorrow and then we’ll just wait and see. I hope the weather will be like this – for the riders and for the fans because it looks like there will be a great crowd! Now we have the most important thirty laps of the season left to complete our target.
Troy Bayliss, 2nd fastest, 1:31.210s
It's been a great weekend so far, now I'd just like to finish it off with a good result. This is a great opportunity to finish the story I started with the Desmosedici in 2003 because this is the last 990cc MotoGP race, so I really appreciate getting the ride. I'm back with my old guys from this team in 2004 and I've come with a few guys from Superbikes, Ernesto Marinelli, Paolo Ciabatti and Davide Tardozzi, so I've felt at home all weekend. We expected quite a bit before we came here even though I hadn't been on this year's bike or on Bridgestone tyres. We didn't put any pressure on ourselves, we've just taken it step by step and every session we've got better. The bike and tyres are obviously working pretty good, though we'll be looking for a little more in the morning because you've never got a perfect bike. To be on the front row is so important here. Now I hope to get a good start and be part of the race.
Loris Capirossi, 3rd fastest, 1:31.307s
Troy and I are like wine - the older we get the faster we get! I am very happy with the work we've done today, especially this morning when I did a semi-race simulation of 20 laps, maintaining a very good pace throughout. This afternoon I started on new race tyres and managed a 32.2 which is really good. We will have to wait and see what the conditions will be tomorrow but I think we are pretty strong because that race simulation suggests we can be fast all race. Furthermore, it's great that we are starting from the front row because overtaking here is very difficult.
Shinya Nakano: 4th - 1:31.341
My aim today was to make sure I started the last race of the season from the front row of the grid, so I am a little disappointed to have missed out on third position by such a narrow margin. But, I am happy with my race set-up and we have good tyre options whatever the conditions tomorrow, so starting from the second row will not be such a big disadvantage I think. I crashed out of the last two races, so my first priority tomorrow is to make it to the chequered flag, but I'd also like to finish the season with a strong result for both me and the team, so I'll be pushing as hard as ever. The battle for the championship between Valentino and Nicky is sure to be intense tomorrow, but there is no pressure on me for the championship, and I hope I can ride my own race without becoming involved in their fight for the title.
Nicky Hayden 5th – 1:31.378s
We’re starting on the second row and that means I need a lightning start tomorrow. We’re definitely going all in for the win and it’ll be interesting because there are some guys going really fast out there. I need fast guys - but I don’t need them to be faster than me! I didn’t get on the front row where I needed to be which makes it a bit harder for me – and I’m not thrilled about that. On my last qualifier I had a good lap going and then had a bit of an issue with traffic in the last split when I had to pass a guy who was starting a lap while I was still on a hot one. It kinda got me off line and I lost a lot of time in the last split but I don’t want to make excuses. We need to tweak on it tonight and see if I can find a little more pace. Regardless I just need to focus on the race and finish the year strong – whatever happens happens.
Dani Pedrosa 6th – 1:31.385:
Today we had a good practice in the morning and made some more progress with the race set-up and tyre choice. We more-or-less have the set-up now although we still need to find a few tenths of a second because some riders improved their race pace in the afternoon. On the qualifying tyres this afternoon at first I was not so fast. I improved a little on my later runs and we finished in sixth place – which is not perfect because Rossi is on pole. From the second row I will need to do a great start tomorrow and get away with the leaders. It’s going to be a big race in front of many, many fans so I’m really looking forward to it.
Casey Stoner 7th - 1:31.606:
I made a small mistake on my fast lap, and lost 0.2s, which would have put me up in the top four positions. But I’m close to the front, and not 14th, which is where I was before I got that new tyre from Michelin. The tyre felt more predictable and didn’t upset the bike. My back is OK when I am riding so that’s OK. This race is always close in qualifying but a lot of riders drop-off towards the end. I’m just going out to do my own thing in the final race of the season.
Chris Vermeulen 8th - 1:31.606
I was happy this morning to come to a circuit that I knew. I was able to go straight out and get into a good rhythm because I knew which way the track was going and I was able to follow the right lines. It felt really comfortable this morning but the track temperature certainly increased this afternoon. We made some changes to the bike that definitely improved it and we have tried quite a few tyres for Bridgestone. We found a tyre this afternoon that works pretty good and we will test that further to make sure that it will last race distance. I am quite happy with everything today and will certainly be looking to go a bit quicker tomorrow!
John Hopkins 9th - 1'31.663
I have been struggling a bit this afternoon to find the best grip for the bike, it’s something that we will be working on tomorrow and we have some different tyres that we will be trying. That’s really the main thing to concentrate on at the moment - we need to find that extra edge grip because that is really important round here. Other than that we have worked pretty hard all day and we have a plan of what we want to do tomorrow, so we will be coming out and be ready to go for it.
Colin Edwards 10th – 1:31.711
I’m really pleased with the race setting although we could still make a little more time up in the second sector so that is something we will look at in the warm-up tomorrow. I’m also having a slight problem under braking into turn one but it’s good to know that even with those small setbacks we are still right up there in terms of the pace we can expect to see at the front tomorrow. The bike is a lot better than yesterday – we were confident that the changes we had in mind would work and they did, so I have to give my thanks to the team for that. They’ve done a great job on the bike and we’re all set to give a good showing in the last race. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get it done on the qualifying tyre today so the starting position is a little further back than we would like but I know this circuit really well and hopefully I can use that knowledge to make as many passes as possible at the start of the race, get up there and help Valentino win this championship.
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