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2008-09-27 Rider claims after Motegi qualifying
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 After tough period of injuries and bad results, Jorge Lorenzo today continued his rise to the top by taking pole position in Motegi, setting new pole position record in process. Casey Stoner is not on the pole, but certainly he has race-pace that makes him one of podium favorites. Rossi qualified outside of the first row, while Hayden managed to return to it. Read rider claims after MotoGP qualifying in Motegi.
Jorge Lorenzo - 1st:
I’m so happy for this pole position because this is how I started my season and it shows that we are returning to how we were. It’s the first pole since Portugal, when I won, and we have had a hard time since then until the last two podiums so this is a great satisfaction for me. I was able to ride so fast all day today, a big improvement from yesterday, and my Michelin tyres worked so well all day so thank you to them. My team have done a great job to set the bike up and this is a fantastic qualifying for us. It’s not the race so now we have to wait for tomorrow, but we’re starting in the best place so I am looking forward to having a great race.
Casey Stoner - 2nd:
For the race we're in quite good shape. We've still got a few things to improve for tomorrow but we're reasonably happy because we're running consistent lap times. I'm a little bit disappointed with qualifying. Of the three qualifying tyres you always use the first one to try and get used to it and build from there but the second tyre didn't work as we hoped and then on the third one I got a bug on my visor at the start of the lap! I couldn't get the rip-off visor off because I was trying to push but the bug distracted me and I couldn't see properly. It's a silly little thing but stuff just doesn't seem to be going for us at the moment! Anyway, second place is still good and tomorrow's another day. We're in good shape for the race and we'll do the best we can.
Nicky Hayden - 3rd:
Honda’s home race, we’re on the front row which is nice, now we’ve got to try and get a result. Yesterday the bike didn’t feel good, balance and all. We made some pretty good changes overnight. A lot of the time when you make changes, in theory they should do this or that but a lot of the time it don’t work out like that, but today everything worked like we thought it would, so my guys did some good work. My race pace is decent but not great, we need to improve tomorrow morning if we want to turn it into a result, which is the plan. My first qualifier went good, my second I didn’t really improve, the third one I did improve, then the fourth felt really good. But going into turn three there was a pack of riders, so I just had to shut it down. I went hard enough for the rest of that lap to keep heat in the tyres and then tried to pull the trigger again. Luckily I was able to get two laps out of it, though the last little bit of the second lap the right side started to go. The Michelin qualifiers were really good today, so I just held on to squeeze on to the front row. That’s important here especially because in the past there’s been plenty of carnage at the first turn. We’ll try to improve the bike in morning, try to get away with them, then see what we got.
Valentino Rossi - 4th:
Honestly I’m a bit disappointed because the front row was our target today, but anyway fourth isn’t too bad! Unfortunately we spent a bit too much time with the race tyres and started our qualifying sequence a few minutes late, this meant that I was maybe one or two minutes late going out with my last tyre and I got a bit caught up with traffic when de Angelis fell. Anyway, our race pace is quite good so I am confident that we can be in the fight, although we will have to get a good start. We have one or two small problems that we need to work on so we will use the warm-up to check a few things and I think we can improve a little bit more. I am not thinking about the championship right now, I will just aim for the podium and see what happens.
Dani Pedrosa - 5th:
I am happier than I was after Indy qualifying because we are improving all the time. Every time I go out with another qualifying tyre I get faster, but during my last lap today I made a mistake at one corner and lost a lot of time. The second row is okay, it’s important to get a good start here because the first corner is so close to the grid. Today we tried a few different race tyres and did some good work, but we still need to make some improvements in a few different places. This is Honda’s home track, I have always been a Honda rider, so it is very important for all of us to get a good result here. I will do my best.
Loris Capirossi - 6th:
I think it has been quite a good weekend for us so far. I am a bit upset about the last qualifying lap, as I hit a lot of traffic and lost eight-tenths-of-a-second in the third section! I am really pleased with the bike and it is probably the best we have had a bike set-up for race distance. We hope that we will have the same conditions in the race tomorrow as we had this afternoon and then we will have to see what happens. I want to say a really big thank-you to all my guys and Suzuki because they have all done a really great job this weekend!
Colin Edwards - 7th:
I felt like I threw everything at it today but I couldn’t get close to Jorge’s time. That was pretty impressive and he did an awesome job. The weird thing is that our qualifier doesn’t usually spin at all but for some reason today that’s all mine did. Michelin have had a great qualifier all year but today it felt more like a soft race tyre, which is very strange and I don’t know if it is down to the tyre or the set-up. Looking at Jorge and how he seemed to make it work, I guess it was our set-up. On race tyres it is the same. Everything I have got it is spinning but there is no variation. I’ve got three tyres I could race and they all feel the same. Normally that would tell you there is a set-up issue. We had spinning problems yesterday and we played around with rear springs and some other suggestions we thought might work, but none of it really seemed to make any difference. We just haven’t found anything yet. Looking at my race pace, I don’t really have a low 47 in my package at the moment and it looks like that’s what we are going to need. It would have been good to be on the second row because history has shown that the first corner here can be pretty tough. It is also not the easiest place to overtake on. There are a lot of hard braking zones but you’ve got lots of momentum going into the corner, so you’ve got to be really confident to dive underneath somebody. This is a big race for Yamaha tomorrow and hopefully I can play a big part in it.
Randy De Puniet - 8th:
It was a good day but not perfect! On race trim we improved the grip feeling since this morning but I am not totally satisfied about the rear grip. I had a too many slides and need more initial grip. We tried to adjust the setting getting some improvements but it’s not enough yet. However I feel satisfied as lapped consistently fast on race tyres. Unfortunately I made a small mistake on qualifiers at turn 9 losing three tenths and the second row. Anyway third row is not bad but we need to find more rear grip in tomorrow’s warm up session. My wrist still aches a lot so will get some painkillers for the 24 laps.
Shinya Nakano - 9th:
Today the weather was better than yesterday for both the morning and afternoon sessions, with high temperatures that allowed us to work well. During the morning we worked on the bike set-up and tyre choice, trying a couple more tyre solutions at the start of qualifying and putting together a pace I was happy with. I’m not completely satisfied with ninth on the grid but the third row isn’t bad. It will obviously be important to get a good start tomorrow because it is difficult to overtake here. I’m confident for the race because my pace is good.
James Toseland - 10th:
I paid for my lack of time and experience on this track really. To be in the top ten is not too bad but when you believe you can do a lot better it is frustrating. With four qualifiers you need half the session to use them and that just leaves you ten to fifteen laps on race tyres to find a good set-up. We got the bike a bit better and got into the 48s but we really need to be doing high 47s to be challenging for the top six. I’m pretty happy with my progress but with that rain session yesterday it has held me back a little bit. We made a step forward with the set-up yesterday but there is more we need to do. The temperature was a lot hotter today and the softer tyre that was looking good,we can't use. Now it is warmer we need to run the harder tyre and we need a lot more weight on the rear to make it work. The setting that we had was fine for the softer tyre but with the harder one it wasn’t putting enough load on the rear tyre. On the qualifiers I got into the 46s and I’m only three-tenths off Colin and he has been here many times on the same bike. I could have done with being on that third row so it will be a bit difficult but we’ll try and keep out of trouble early on. You need a good start because there is not much distance between the start and the first corner. There is a top six finish out there if we can improve the setting and I’ll be giving it my all as usual with this being such an important race for everybody at Yamaha.
John Hopkins - 11th:
From yesterday to today we've definitely made a big improvement with the bike, particularly in the rear end grip and braking stability. The Bridgestone tyres are working well here, and we're now using the same specification front tyre that the other competitors have been on for some time. We had to make a few set-up changes to suit this, but my confidence is growing, so we're back on track and going in the right direction. I was hoping to be in the top ten, but I made a mistake on my last qualifying tyre and we didn't get the best run, which prevented us from achieving a higher starting position. However, it's a better result than we've had in the last few rounds and our race pace is strong, so we're looking for a good start, and I hope we can get away to fight for a good finish, especially as it's Kawasaki's second home event.
Chris Vermeulen - 12th:
That has been the best session of the weekend so far and Tom and the team have done a fantastic job to get the bike set-up for here. The race-tyre pace improved a lot throughout today, but unfortunately I made a bit of a mistake on my last qualifying tyre. If I hadn’t perhaps the time would have been a bit better than it was. It is the best qualifying I have done at Motegi and I am definitely enjoying the track a lot more, so hopefully the race result tomorrow will reflect that.
Andrea Dovizioso - 13th:
Tomorrow will be a race that I must make a good start in. From the fifth row I will have to start very well, but usually I make a fast start, so I might be able to recover some positions. The first turn on the Motegi circuit could be difficult and has to be approached carefully if we are all bunched up. The circuit has a particular character: there’s a lot of acceleration from low speed, out of the slow corners and these characteristics do not help us and also it is pretty challenging to pass on the brakes. Passing is one of my strengths and one, which I will try to exploit to the fullest. I think the first group of four riders will have an advantage, while I can fight for fifth or sixth place in the second group.
Toni Elias – 14th:
Today it has been a really hard day because I didn’t feel well. I am ill and I don’t have so much energies. It isn’t the best situation for a racing weekend. This morning we had some difficulties to find the right set up and I also slipped. In the afternoon we have improved, even if I can’t be too happy. With the qualifying tyres I went really bad today and I will have to start well in the race to try to remain with the front group.
Sylvain Guintoli – 15th:
A really bad qualifying. During every free session I went quite well and the race rhythm is good, but I am really sad to have to start so far behind. With this bike is like playing golf, when you try to push harder, as I have done during today with qualifying tyres, you can’t make it to improve. Maybe I have to be more relaxed with this bike and I don’t have to try so impetuously.
Marco Melandri - 16th:
Today went more or less like the whole season. When the conditions are bad and the pace drops we're able to go well, but with a dry track the same old problems come back. I'm quite strong on the brakes and on the way into the corners but I'm really, really slow on the exit because I can't get the throttle open. The bike is moving around so much and that clearly isn't my style of riding. Unfortunately I'm expecting a tough race.
Anthony West - 17th:
I'm obviously disappointed to have qualified so far down the grid, but we've made some progress today. I have been really struggling on corner entry when the machine is under heavy braking, because it locks up and makes it feel very unstable to turn. It's been particularly bad at this circuit, as it's very tight and there are a lot of corners that require heavy braking and hard acceleration. We made some changes from this morning to this afternoon and this made a huge difference in the way the bike handled on a race tyre, giving me a lot more confidence and the ability to run consistently good times. We just didn't have enough time to continue our progress, but it's the first time I've felt really comfortable on the bike for a while and I hope this will transfer into a better result for us in tomorrow's race.
Alex De Angelis - 18th:
It’s been a really tough day today. We have definitely improved the race set-up but we don’t seem able to put it together in qualifying. Unfortunately I crashed on my last lap and couldn’t improve my position any more. In any case I’m confident about tomorrow because we’re in good shape with the race setting. Obviously we’re not going to be challenging for sixth or seventh but I’d be happy with a top ten.
Kousuke Akiyoshi - 19th:
I am really struggling to find the best setting for my bike. We still have work to do with mapping and engine characteristics. We made some big changes and the feeling got a lot better, but we are still pushing the front tyre through the corners so we need to make some more big changes and I hope that will work. I am looking forward to the race and if I can get a good start I am sure I can get up into the points!
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