Rider claims after Mugello MotoGP race

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2007-06-03 Rider claims after Mugello MotoGP race
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Valentino Rossi returned to the top position on the podium today after difficult start of the season, and did that in his favourite place. This time, race at Mugello was not battle of Italians, as this time riders of some other nationalities have something to celebrate. Read thoughts of MotoGP riders after Italian Grand Prix.

Valentino Rossi - race winner:
To win in Mugello once again is an incredible emotion for me and I am very happy at this moment. Racing in front of the fans here is always something unbelievable and they give me an extra motivation. It's an incredible feeling to see so much yellow around the track, the fans were ‘coming crazy' today and it was a wonderful race! As we had hoped it stayed dry, the sun came out and everything went to plan! My team have worked brilliantly, my bike was perfect and I could ride it exactly how I wanted, I need to say a huge thank you to them and also to Michelin. I didn't get a very good start but once my tyres had warmed up my M1 really flew and I was able to fight back to the front. From the very beginning everyone was pushing at 100% and it was great fun in those first few laps! It was really a perfect race for me today and I felt like I had everyone on my side; Mugello is a magical track for me and this victory gives us a lot of power and confidence for the next races. I had a special helmet for this race with a big heart on it and today I think we showed that we really have a lot of heart at Yamaha. This is a great, great moment for me.

Dani Pedrosa - 2nd:
I am very happy to be back on the podium today and this is a good result for me, especially starting from eighth on the grid. My start was very good and I was able to pass many riders. Then in the first corner when I touched the throttle I had a very big slide and they came past again. My performance was really strong from the beginning until the middle of the race and I was able to recover and take the lead. Then I started to have the same issues as in some of the other races this year. I could see that Valentino was getting away slowly but as I tried to speed up I was getting slides from both wheels, so I couldn’t push the tyres any harder and I had to close the throttle a little bit and settle for second. Still, this is a useful result for us and we were lucky it stayed dry today. The last race was also strong and now we have some good momentum going into my home race at Barcelona next weekend.

Alex Barros - 3rd:
I am of course really happy to have achieved my first podium of this season and it has come at the perfect time. Mugello is the home race for Ducati and Pramac, so I am pleased to be able to give them a fitting result. I would like to say thanks to the entire Pramac d’Antin team for a very good job and to Bridgestone for providing me with tyres capable of scoring the podium. After the fourth place we got in Turkey, I have had my share of bad luck in recent races, so it is good to get such a competitive result, also at a circuit I like very much. Now, I hope we can continue to show our competitiveness for the rest of the season, and I’m quite sure we can achieve this together, my team is working very well and I’m very confident and comfortable with them all.

Casey Stoner - 4th:
That was a very difficult race. After warm-up we knew we would struggle a bit but I thought maybe we could make the podium. We were really close to a top-three result but we didn't quite manage it. Anyway, I'd like to say thank you to the team because we tried everything we could this weekend but unfortunately the conditions weren't perfect for us, with so much rain during practice. We learned some more lessons that will make us come back stronger at Barcelona next weekend. The biggest difficulty we had today was turning in the long corners and we also lacked a bit of traction. But, as I said, we should be able to solve these problems before the next race and score a better result.

John Hopkins - 5th:
It was a busy race, but an enjoyable one to say the least! We would have liked to have kept the podium streak going for Rizla Suzuki, but it was not to be today. It was really hard going at the start and I got involved in a bit of a dogfight with Valentino, which was really enjoyable – it was close racing but fun! The group then sort of bunched up a bit and then suddenly Rossi, Pedrosa and Stoner started to make a break and I knew I had to stay with them. I busted my butt to keep up there and the Bridgestone tyres performed great. I think we chose the right tyres today considering the amount of dry track time we had in practice. The bike was awesome out there, especially on the brakes – the amount of stability it has under braking is amazing! The mechanics did a fantastic job this weekend considering the conditions they had to work in, so a big thanks to them. We are now ready to go to Catalunya – a track I really like – and see what we can do there!

Toni Elias - 6th
Sixth place at Mugello is a good result, especially having started from fifteenth. The team did a great job and in the warm-up we took a big step forward with the set-up. I got a good start and tried to make up position but unfortunately the front tyre choice was a little too soft for today's track conditions and after a few laps I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to. I’m happy though and I’m looking forward to racing in front of my home fans in Barcelona next Sunday.

Loris Capirossi - 7th
I gave everything I had today and things were going well at the start. Then I had two big moments, first at Arrabbiata 1, then at Arrabbiata 2. I lost the front and risked falling, so that lost me some confidence in the front and I wasn't able to maintain such a fast pace, I had to slow my rhythm. Unfortunately, the strange weather conditions during the weekend didn't allow us to work the way we wanted to on my new engine spec. I used the new spec today because Ducati had done such a good job in giving me more rideability but we lacked some speed. Anyway, it was good to be up front again and we will work to improve some more during practice at Barcelona next weekend.

Chris Vermeulen - 8th:
It was nice to start from the front row as it gave me a good opportunity. I got a decent start and followed Stoner early on, but I just couldn’t hang in there with the top group. I got passed by a couple of guys and to be truthful I was a bit inexperienced with the circuit. I went down the field and my times dropped off quicker than everyone else, although at the end they were quite similar. We got some good points and eighth is pretty good from a track that we knew was going to be hard work. Hopefully now we can go to some circuits that are a bit more familiar to us and get back up there challenging!

Marco Melandri - 9th
I got a good start and I was flying over the first few laps but then I started to struggle. The bike was skipping around and from being in third place I dropped back to ninth. I’m disappointed because this is a special race for me. We’ve had this problem to a varying degree since the start of the season and at the moment we can’t come up with a solution.

Nicky Hayden - 10th:
You put yourself in a hole when you qualify in 13th and that really didn’t help me out much today. It was a tough race. I got a decent start and on the first lap I picked off a few riders, but really I just didn’t have the race pace to go with the lead guys. In the last couple of laps I had a pretty good scrap with Vermeulen and Melandri but I was a lot further back than I would have liked. It definitely wasn’t a great day for us. Basically I had an issue with the set-up today and the machine just didn’t feel planted in a lot of the fast corners here. The balance wasn’t right and every time I tried to push harder I was right on the limit and had a few moments. Me and the team are going to be working hard to improve things for the next race in Catalunya.

Alex Hofmann - 11th:
Alex made a good race and I’m happy for him and the whole team, but I cannot be satisfied with my result. I don’t really know what happened, but after the race began, I knew immediately that I wasn’t able to find the right feeling with the handling at the rear of the bike. Even if yesterday we had good race pace, today I wasn’t fast as I would have liked to be and it was a very difficult GP. It was all a bit frustrating because I tried to speed up, but I wasn’t able to. I hope to return to form in the next race, but we haven’t got a lot of time to improve, so we will have to work very hard.

Colin Edwards - 12th:
Yet again Mugello just hasn't worked out for me and it was a pretty terrible weekend from start to finish. I think that today I had the pace for fifth or sixth place but starting from where I was I lost about six or seven seconds on the first lap alone as there was so much traffic in front of me. We lost a lot of time on Friday morning, one of only two hours of dry practice time, trying some new stuff which didn't work out and things didn't get much better after that. I think this is just my bogey track and I can't wait to leave and get straight back out there in a few days in Barcelona. Let's hope for better things in Spain.

Shinya Nakano - 13th:
My start wasn’t too bad and from then until the middle of race my lap time was pretty good and I had a good feeling with the bike. I felt that the race setting we had on the bike was the best of the weekend, but then from the middle of the race we suffered from a chatter problem once more and I had to reduce my corner speed, which is when Colin Edwards overtook me.

Olivier Jacque - 16th:
I finished the race, which was our priority, and I was surprised to be able to keep the rhythm, but now I am really exhausted. I made a good start, but when I shifted to second and third gear many riders overtook me. Maybe I used the first one for too long, but the result was that I dropped from fourth to twelfth position on the first lap. Finally, the race was in dry conditions and this track is really demanding as well, so after seven laps I started to lose the strength in the arm. I couldn’t be precise and I didn’t want to take any risks and, instead, save energy for the rest of the race. I was sweating a lot for the last laps. I tried to overtake Guintoli and Tamada. Unfortunately, they were stronger than I was on the brakes at the end of the straight and I couldn’t take advantage of our engine. This is the first step and I am sure that Barcelona is going to be better.

Kenny Roberts -17th:
It was a very quiet race for me. I never saw anybody after about the first or second turn. I rode as hard as I could. On the last lap I saw the track invasion, with people coming over the retaining wall, so after the last corner I didn't even attempt to go down the straightaway with any speed. If I hadn't seen them… well, you could hurt people.

Randy de Puniet - DNF:
This weekend has been far from the best, but the race was the definite low point. Firstly, I got a bad start and lost seven positions in one go - I think I had the same problem as Olivier, but we will need to check this. Anyway, I was trying to recover places as quickly as possible, before the leading group had a chance to get away. I overtook Nakano and Olivier and I was lining up Hofmann when I lost the front in the Arrabbiata. I went in wide, got off the racing line mid-corner and then lost the front when I hit the bumps on the outside line. Luckily I didn't do any additional damage to my injured shoulder, but I do have some pain in my left knee, but this shouldn't be a problem for Catalunya next week. I can only apologise to everyone in the team, and I leave here determined to make amends in Barcelona in seven days time.

Carlos Checa - DNF:
This is a big disappointment. I was trying to recover some positions and I had Colin and Shinya ahead, but it was difficult, I didn’t have a comfortable feeling overall. I was pushing too much trying for a better result and I crashed. My intention was not to crash, but when the feeling is not right you should listen to the feeling, and try to understand. But now we must look to a positive weekend in Barcelona for the next race.

Kurtis Roberts - DNF:
With the two hours we had in the dry, we took a gamble on some set-up stuff, and we made a plan not to waste mileage on the motor if it didn’t work. We need to save that stuff. I was behind Kenny going into the last corner and I about ran off the racetrack, not even going fast. After that I was having trouble holding the line, so I pulled in to save the motor. Hopefully Barcelona will be good weather all weekend. We have a feeling now what the bike does, and now we can move forwards.

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