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2006-09-16 MotoGP rider claims after qualifying
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 Four races before end of the season, championship title is still not decided, and two key title pretenders, Rossi and Hayden, have great starting position for tomorrow's race. Hayden has set first pole position of the season at the right moment, while Rossi stays in touch with another front-row start. Read impressions about qualifying session from all riders that attended today's qualifying session.
Nicky Hayden - pole position
Its really nice to be on pole and to get a good lap in. That Michelin qualifier worked so good and my bike felt awesome for that one lap. On race pace Im struggling a bit and I just cannot find any traction. Weve changed everything on the bike to try and get some grip and not just spin the tyre. Nonetheless it feels good to get a good lap in weve still got some work to do if we want to do 27 of them tomorrow.
Shinya Nakano: 2nd
We worked extremely hard here at Phillip Island during the winter test in February, to provide both Kawasaki and Bridgestone with a lot of information and development data, and today was our payback. From this data, Kawasaki and Bridgestone have improved to the point where Randy and I were able to come here on Friday and be straight on the pace. I think this shows the commitment of everyone involved with the Kawasaki Racing Team. I'm happy with my consistency on race tyres, as this is important for tomorrow, but I'm also pleased to be starting from the front row. I saw from my pit board that I was in fourth place as I started my final qualifying lap, so I pushed as hard as I could to try and reclaim a position on the front row of the grid. I'm not so bothered about missing out on pole; the front row is good enough for tomorrow's race, in which I think it's possible for us to finish top five at least.
Valentino Rossi: 3rd
The team did a really good job today because we had some difficulties setting the bike up yesterday, but today it worked really well and I was able to qualify on the front row, which is very important at this circuit. Because of the temperatures here we are finding it hard to get heat into the rear tyre and we struggled a bit again today, which is why I had to leave it so late before trying for the fast time on the qualifying tyre. We still have some work to do in this aspect on the race setting but with the qualifying tyre the grip was there and I was able to go third fastest, even though I ran off the track on my out lap and then my bike did a small wheelie in the last corner on my flying lap. Anyway I am happy and want to say a big thank you to my team and to Michelin for the excellent progress we made today. I’m surprised that Capirossi and Gibernau are so far back because they have got a very strong race pace so I suppose me and Nicky will be pushing hard from the start to try and escape.
Kenny Roberts Jr: 4th
I really didn't think I had a lap in me like that, to get so close to the front row. Weve been struggling for rear grip, and we made a few changes since this morning. On my second qualifier I thought I could follow Nicky (Hayden), but he wanted to follow me. I surprised myself. I had a really steady lap, pretty smooth. I think I could have gone quicker if I had somebody to gauge off. But it's only qualifying, and anywhere in the top three rows for me would have been good. Fourth is a bonus.
Colin Edwards: 5th
I don’t think I’ve ever gone from one extreme to the other to this extent in my whole career! From being totally miserable yesterday I’m now really happy and content with our set-up and today’s work. It’s a good feeling! We’ve actually made a big move with the setting, back towards what we had at China and Le Mans and it seems to be working. The thing is we had a different chassis back then and we were suffering with chatter at the time so we never went back to that but the guys worked overtime and came up with a concoction that worked. I’ve really got to thank my team; we’ve changed almost everything possible since yesterday, from electronics to suspension and, bar the engine and the chassis, it’s hardly the same bike today. They’ve put in the hours and it’s clearly worked so I really am seriously grateful to them. I’m really happy with my race tyre and the set-up we used through the session and then the qualifier I used was like superglue! It’s no secret that we were struggling in the tyre area too yesterday so I want to say thanks to Michelin, they’ve pulled something out overnight and it’s looking good. I can’t wait for tomorrow; it feels good to be starting at the right end of the grid for my favourite race of the year!
Marco Melandri: 7th
I set a decent pace. But unfortunately Ilost a few vital tenths on a qualifying tyre and tomorrow Ill be on the third row. Weve still got a few modifications to try in the warm-up and Im still confident I can fight for the podium because this is a track where you always fight to the end. Last year that was the case I started from eighth and fought for the podium, finishing fourth.
Casey Stoner: 8th
I think it is going to be a close race up front. Hopefully I can get a good start, although there is not a big run to turn one. I like the Island track but there is not a lot of passing room, you have be aggressive on the first lap and then be patient as the race unfolds. I usually suck in qualifying so Im pretty happy with today the set-up worked really well on both race and qualifying tyres.
Randy de Puniet: 9th
I'm a little disappointed not to have matched my best lap time from yesterday, as this would have put me closer to the front of the grid for tomorrow's race. However, I am pleased with the improvements we made to the bike today, and also my times on race tyres. It's been a good weekend so far, and I hope we can carry the momentum into tomorrow's race. If I can get a good start, then my only strategy is to try and stay with the leading group of riders for as long as I can. I think it's possible, if our luck holds in the race, to score our best finish of the season so far tomorrow. That's what I'll be aiming for anyway.
Dani Pedrosa: 10th
Today we worked on set-up and my feeling on the bike was not quite as good as Id have liked. We are tenth on the grid and that is not fantastic but its much better than 15th, which is where I was for a lot of the weekend. I was able to ride quite hard on the qualifying tyre, but Im losing a lot of time on every lap in the first sector so I will have to improve that for the race. Tomorrow is another day so Im not sure of my potential yet. I dont know yet if Ill have painkillers I prefer not to but it may be necessary.
Makoto Tamada: 11th
Probably, the different track conditions today are the reason why this morning, I immediately suffered a grip problem in corners and a lack of traction. We tried different tyre solutions, and worked on rear suspension and electronics without solving the problem. This hampers me in the long high speed corners in the second and fourth track sectors.
Sete Gibernau: 12th
The qualifying tyres didn't work the way we had expected them to work here so I had to do my fastest laps with race tyres. My 1m 30.2s best, that was with my race tyre. We've done some long race runs at a pretty good pace but we will be starting from way back on the grid, so it's going to be a very hard race for us. The lap times are very close at this track so it's not easy to get past here. Right now, we've just got to keep our heads down and know that it's going to be an uphill race. We've been running the new-profile Bridgestone as well as the tyre we normally use but we've yet to confirm which we will use in the race. Morning warm-up will be decisive for us.
Loris Capirossi: 13th
I had a problem with my number one bike [a gearbox gremlin stretched the final drive chain], so I had to come in and wait while my second bike was prepared for a qualifying run. That lost me some time and I only did one lap with a qualifier which didn't work the way we wanted it to work. It's a pity because we are okay with our race set-up but we know that starting from the fifth row will make the race difficult. Anyway, I am positive because I know we have a chance to do well tomorrow. There are plenty of riders who were faster than me today but how long can they maintain that pace in the race?
Toni Elias: 14th
The feeling with the bike setting has improved a lot and compared to yesterday we took a big step forward. I set quite a good pace but I wasnt able to build on the good work we did on a race tyre by making the most of the qualifying rubber. Hopefully I can make a good start in the race as I did in Malaysia. Im confident I like the track a lot but I hoped to be higher up on the grid.
John Hopkins: 15th
What can I say? We certainly have a lot of work to do! This is no way what we expected and far from being the best qualifying position we’ve had. We are all pretty disappointed really. This is a race where you need to be up in front from the beginning, so we need to concentrate on a really good start tomorrow. We will look to make some drastic improvements overnight and in tomorrow’s warm-up. We are all working hard to improve the situation, but you can be assured we will come out fighting tomorrow!
Chris Vermeulen: 16th
Not our best qualifying session. I’ve had my worst two positions of the year in the last two races – both 16th. But I did come up to 11th in the last race in Sepang and I’m feeling a lot healthier this weekend so hopefully we can do even better. We couldn’t use a qualifying tyre today, even the race tyres are not working well around here for me. It’s been hard work but we have made the bike better, we will try more things in the warm-up and hopefully we can make it better again.
Alex Hofmann: 17th
I am not satisfied. The DUNLOP Qualifying tires I had were finished before I could complete a fast lap. I couldn’t push to improve my times because the tires didn’t last. My best laptime this afternoon is roughly the same as I obtained this morning with the race tires and this validates my position on the starting grid. Anyway, once again I have a consistent race pace and for the race I will be ready to fight and finish in the points. We did a good job today in spite of some problems we had, and tomorrow we need to concentrate on getting a good start.
Jose Luis Cardoso: 18th
I wasn’t able to stop the clock again, unlike this morning’s laptimes, and I don’t know why. I am not happy because we had problems with all of our tires, both the race tire and the qualifying one. We are too far from the other riders, and I just couldn’t accelerate like I wanted to because the bike was sliding everywhere. I’m hoping for a lot of luck tomorrow.
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