Rider claims after Indianapolis qualifying

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2008-09-14 Rider claims after Indianapolis qualifying
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Dry qualifying session gave the chance to the MotoGP teams to refine settings of their bikes for Indianapolis Grand Prix race, with Valentino Rossi managing to get on top again, just few thousands of a second in front of Casey Stoner. However, it is almost certain that race will take place in wet conditions, and we also learned from Valentino Rossi that there is possibility that race may be canceled in case of heavy rain. Read rider thoughts after Indianapolis qualifying.

Valentino Rossi - pole position - 1:40.776:
I’m very happy to get the chance to ride on this circuit in the dry, it’s a great track and I had a lot of fun today. It’s technical and difficult, which I like, and it seems to suit our bike and tyres well. There are places to pass, especially turn one and turn ten, and the grip of the new asphalt is much better in the dry. If it’s like this tomorrow, then we can have a great race! Unfortunately this seems unlikely so we will have to wait and see what the situation is tomorrow at race time. If it’s ‘normal’ rain then we will be okay, if it’s like yesterday then we have to take a decision all together about racing. I am really happy with the work we did today, we found a great setting for the qualifying tyres this afternoon and I made some good laps, especially the last two. I knew I could try for 1’40 and I was able to do 40.7. Whatever the weather tomorrow, this pole position will be very important.

Casey Stoner - 2nd - 1:40.860:
The breakdown this morning cost us some valuable time during the best part of the session in terms of track condition, so we paid the price for that this afternoon. I was struggling to find grip on the front end and we spent so much time working it out that we didn't have much time to put in a qualifying lap at the end. To be honest I thought we'd be lucky to get on the front two rows. As it happened we got a surprisingly decent lap together and to end up second fastest is much better than we expected so finally it was not so bad. It means my pole run has come to end but that had to happen eventually and the important thing is we have a good position for tomorrow. Now we have to wait and see what the weather does but we have work still to do on the bike in warm-up whatever the conditions.

Jorge Lorenzo - 3rd - 1:41.177:
I am so happy that this track is different to how I expected, because I really enjoyed myself this afternoon! I thought it would be quite dangerous but in fact I feel really safe on my M1 here, which is allowing me to be fast. Some of the corners are really close together which I enjoy because it means I can ride very smoothly in the style that I like. It’s a good track for me. We are on the front row for the second race in a row and this shows that we are truly getting back to our best, so I want to thank my team for their work, both here and in Misano. We are still not perfect in the wet or the dry so we need to make some improvements in warm-up, but we don’t know what the weather will do tomorrow so we will have to wait and see.

Nicky Hayden - 4th – 1:41.271:
That was nearly the front row but outside on the second row ain’t a bad spot. I feel this is the best race pace I’ve had in a while; a few times when I’ve qualified good this year it’s just been one lap with a qualifier. I enjoyed today, even this morning in the damp. Yesterday in the heavy rain, man, I was hydroplaning everywhere, it wasn’t any fun. I had a lot more fun today, the bike was working a lot better, we made some geometry tweaks to make it feel better and I was able to be more consistent. The bike certainly felt pretty good and the Michelin tyres felt pretty good. For the race it’s surely looking wet. It would be awesome to catch a break and get in a dry race, because I feel this is the best race package I’ve had in a while. If it’s dry we’ve got an idea on tyres. If it’s wet, my set-up yesterday wasn’t working real good. If it’s heavy, heavy rain we need to do something different. It would’ve been nice to be on the front row, we could certainly use a bit of a boost because my guys are working real hard and I’ve got a lot of support here: friends, family and fans. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, try to have a bit of fun, see how it goes. The special helmet paint is for the Indianapolis Colts. When I was a kid I played Pop Warner football and I was a Colt, that was my team. It was me, my little brother and one of my best friends. Colts have always been my favourite team. And the horseshoe, maybe I could do with a bit of good luck!

Ben Spies - 5th - 1:41.464:
It was a good session this afternoon and we tried various things on both bikes. I went back to the primary bike that we had done most work on and looked at the race set-up until we were happy with that and then put on the qualifiers. I just went faster and faster every time I went out, those Bridgestone qualifiers are just unbelievable and it took me a time to find the limit of them, so I am sure I could go quicker with a bit more time using them! Fifth place is a good spot and the second row will be a good place to start - if the weather is going to be as bad as they say - so that I can be ahead of any of the drama that might happen. I am now really looking forward to the race because everything has gone well so far this weekend.

Randy De Puniet - 6th – 1:41.492:
I am very happy about my result because it’s not easy to find the right set-up on a new track. Yesterday we had both sessions in the wet and this morning the track surface was still damp. For the final qualifying the track was completely dry but I could easily ride as I would like. When I came out on race tyres my pace was consistently fast and I made a good job on qualifiers as well. This is a very positive result if we consider that I miss some power in the straight but thanks to the adjustments we did this morning I will start from the second row once again. Starting from the 6th position will help me in case of heavy rain but I do not feel worried about the bad weather because we have got a good pace in both conditions.

Andrea Dovizioso - 7th – 1:41.744:
I'm glad of the proof of what's happened today, because I was strong but I still have a good margin of performance and I can approach the race tomorrow in a very positive way. With only one day of sunshine available, maybe our set-up isn't perfect, but that also means we could expect surprises from our opponents. If the weather remains like today I believe the race will be very intense - but the forecasts announce intense rain. I feel ready for both conditions and fast in both, as I'm at the front of the third row and was close to the second row. A good start here in Indianapolis is important to tackle the new stretch of asphalt as there's one good, clean line available through it.

Dani Pedrosa - 8th- 1:41.754:
Today was the first time that I have used Bridgestone qualifying tyres, so it was quite difficult because I was trying to study the tyres while at the same time trying to push for the best possible-grid position. The fact with qualifying tyres is that you can only be really fast once you know them very well. I was able improve my times with my third qualifier, so I think the third row is not such a bad result, considering the circumstances. As for race tyres, I wasn’t able to do too many consecutive laps because we had so little dry-track time. Therefore we still need to define some details for race-tyre choice but overall I feel quite fine. We also need to work to better understand my new machine, which is very different from the machine I had been using, especially considering the electronics. All in all, I’m confident, we are gaining important experience and improving every time I go out. I hope we will have a dry race tomorrow. If it’s going to rain like it did yesterday afternoon then we will discuss with Race Direction the best course of action.

Toni Elias – 9th - 1:41.886:
I am happy because the race rhythm is very good. Even if I will start from the third row I think we will be able to have a really nice race. I have been unlucky in the fall but I was really pumped up and I was pushing at the maximum. I feel good on the bike and tomorrow we will do our best to conquer another good result. We hope that tomorrow we will have similar climatic condition.

James Toseland - 10th - 1:41.897:
It was a tough session and I’m disappointed not to be on the second row. We’d been working in a good direction with the bike for the qualifiers and on my penultimate tyre I must have gone over a second faster than the previous one. On the last one we tried another modification to the setting and unfortunately I lost all side grip. I had a bit of chatter at maximum lean angle, and that’s where you need to be pushing on the qualifying tyres. It is a shame because I had been building up speed nicely and was confident of being on the second row. That one change at the end could have been the second row but it was the fourth and that is frustrating because we should have performed better. I’ve heard the weather is going to be bad tomorrow so I think it will be a battle of survival. It totally depends on how much it rains. If it is like yesterday morning then we can race, but if it is like it was at the end of the second session then it will be impossible unfortunately. That would be a great shame because even in torrential rain, three-quarters of the track is great for grip. On the old tarmac the water drains better than I’ve ever seen. Hopefully we won’t have to worry about that and we can do what we came here for and what we want to do, and that’s put on a good race for the American fans. They have been brilliant.

Colin Edwards - 11th - 1.41.934:
I always do my fastest laps and my fastest riding when it looks like I’m just taking a Sunday cruise. I have always been really smooth but at the moment I’m having too climb all over the bike to stop it from chattering and that is strange because I haven’t had any chatter all year. With a new track we tried a few big changes with the setting but with the lack of dry track time it hasn’t been easy to get comfortable. It is not through a lack of effort that I’m not as high up the grid as I wanted to be. We have changed everything to try and make it better without much success. This morning’s session wasn’t terrible and I felt reasonably happy, but the more I pushed this afternoon the worse the problems became. I was struggling to hold a line. If I was going slow I could hold the line, but trying telling a racer you’ve got to go slow. It is disappointing to have my second home race and not be where I want to be again. On the qualifiers the grip was brilliant, but with the extra grip the more the chatter increased. We’ve got to see what happens tomorrow with the forecasts being pretty grim. Hopefully we can race tomorrow whether it is wet or dry. We want to race for the fans who have travelled hundreds of miles to come and see us.

Alex De Angelis - 12th - 1:41.969:
On my last fast lap I was slowed by another rider going to the pit box, it was a pity. I’m satisfied with the tyres Bridgestone helped me improve in each session today. I am also happy with my improvement on qualifying tyres. My pace is very good on race tyres, I was very fast in FP3. I’m not worried about the weather because I was have been fast in both the wet and dry. But starting from the fourth row of the grid will be difficult – I will need to make a very good start.

Loris Capirossi - 13th - 1:42.305:
Today was a little better compared to yesterday, but we still struggled a bit. We changed a lot of the settings today and then the bike started to work much better. During qualifying I made a good couple of runs on the first two tyres, but then I made mistakes on the last two and lost the laps. I feel a lot more positive now though compared to yesterday and the settings we now have will work if it is wet or dry tomorrow – but obviously we hope it is the same as today.

Sylvain Guintoli – 14th - 1:42.405:
During qualifying, in my best lap, I made a little mistake in the first part of the circuit and I lost a bit of time. Surely this track conditions are much better for us compare to yesterday. The race rhythm has improved compared this morning and we are trustful that during tomorrow’s warm up we will make it to take another step forward.

Chris Vermeulen - 15th - 1:42.551:
With such limited dry set-up time it has been quite difficult to get everything done, we had to test tyres, get the bike working as well as we can and then go quick on the qualifiers. We made some steps with the bike on race tyres and things felt quite comfortable. My lap-times were good and when we put in the first qualifier we made another big-step with that. Unfortunately on the second qualifier I made a mistake and crashed, that caused me to lose time coming back to the pits and my other bike was set-up differently so I couldn’t improve on my time. I have to say sorry to the guys for messing up the bike because they have done such a great job again this weekend. In truth we should be further up the grid, but we’ll give it 100% in the race tomorrow and see what happens!

John Hopkins - 16th - 1:42.673:
It was like starting all over again today, as the conditions were very different to the rain we had yesterday. I was struggling a lot this morning, as well as most of the afternoon, and our lap time was not anywhere near where we needed it to be. Then with 20-minutes of the afternoon session to go, we tried a front tyre that we don't tend to use that often on our bike and in just one outing we reduced our lap time by half a second. Unfortunately we had to switch our focus then to our qualifying runs, and this left us just 16th on the grid. We have a few ideas for warm-up and it will be very important for us to get a good start to the race tomorrow. I'm actually pretty confident, as well as incredibly motivated, because this is my home round and there are a lot of American fans here. I just hope that the weather situation is consistent throughout the entire day, as this will be important while we're trying to improve our setting.

Shinya Nakano - 17th - 1:42.732:
In the completely dry qualification my race pace was not so bad, everywhere. But I didn’t have a good feeling with grip on the first part of the circuit. Qualifying was very bad for me, I was only 0.6s faster than with my race set up. I ran straight on at one corner in the qualifying session but only fell off at very low speed. The problem is that I have to start from the sixth row of the grid and that will not be easy. For me the weather is not a big problem wet or dry, only my grid position.

Marco Melandri - 18th - 1:43.807:
I'm really disappointed with this second day because we haven't managed to find a good set-up for the race tomorrow. I haven't got grip on the front or the rear and I can't afford to take any risks by pushing too hard. I don't know if we'll have time to do anything about it in the 20-minute warm-up tomorrow so I expect it will be a very tough race.

Anthony West - 19th - 1:43.931:
To go from first to last in one day is very frustrating for us and it's certainly not where we hoped to be. The track here is quite difficult to master, as the grip levels at different parts of the circuit are inconsistent and this makes setting up the bike quite difficult. I was struggling to get the machine to change direction and this track requires a lot of momentum through the tight turns, which we just couldn't achieve today. We also suffered with a lack of rear traction, a problem that haunted us earlier in the season. We have a lot of work to do overnight on our dry set-up, but if it rains tomorrow then we know from yesterday's times that a good result could well be on the cards.

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