Rider claims after Mugello race

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2008-06-01 Rider claims after Mugello race
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Victory number 7 in Mugello today proved once again that Yamaha-Rossi-Bridgestone combination will be one of toughest to beat this season, which is for sure now clear to all of his competitors. However, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner will not give it up easily, so they are already looking forward to Catalunya. Read rider impressions after the Mugello race.

Valentino Rossi - 1st:
After winning the championship, winning at Mugello is the next best thing for me and once again today it was like a dream. There is no way to describe the feeling I have standing on the podium in front of all of my fans here and I am so happy that I could win once again today. To win for the seventh time running at my home track is amazing but I felt quite a lot of pressure about this, so it’s a relief as well because I didn’t want to disappoint everyone! It’s been a hard weekend for everyone because of the bad weather and the lack of dry track time, but my crew have done a fantastic job with the bike and my M1 was wonderful today. Once I got to the front I was able to make a gap from the others but towards the end it was unbelievably hot and it became quite hard to ride. I wanted to ease off a bit but Casey was pushing hard behind so I had to keep going. Thanks to all of my team, to the engineers and of course to Bridgestone! I’m really glad that I’ve been the one to give them their first win at this track and they did a great job today because my tyre worked virtually the same from start to finish. It’s been a fantastic day, it’s always one of the best moments of the year for me and now we’ve made a bit more of the gap at the top of the championship so things couldn’t be better. Honestly after this weekend I think I would like to go to bed for five days but now we have to go straight to Barcelona!

Casey Stoner - 2nd
I was disappointed not to be on the podium in my first race here for Ducati last season so this makes up for it and it's a chance for me to say 'thank you' to Ducati and all the Ducatisti for their support. We've had some problems over the first few races of this season but at Le Mans and here we've found a more comfortable set-up and a bike that is really competitive. Today was an awesome race. I led from the start but I didn't want to push too hard because the front tyre took a few laps to bed in. Valentino came past in a section of the circuit where I was losing a little bit too much time - I was trying to make it up around the rest of the track but pushed it too much into turn one, ran wide and lost touch with Valentino. We knew the setting of the bike would be more suited to the final few laps and we expected to be strong but unfortunately I'd fallen a little bit too far behind. Even so, second place is a great result and it gives us a real boost going to Catalunya.

Dani Pedrosa - 3rd:
That was a really tough race because Valentino’s pace was very, very fast. I got a good start and the rhythm was really high, at first I was able to go with them, then I had a battle with Casey. I tried to catch him at the end but it was impossible. It was great to be on the podium, it's a good result for the Championship, but while consistency is always important, we need to win more races. The engine was good today, our main concern now is tyre consistency during the second part of races. I was losing the front towards the end of today’s race, so tyres are what we must focus on.

Alex De Angelis - 4th:
I am so happy with this result – this has been an unforgettable day for me. I was fastest in the warm-up and then we’ve had this fantastic result in the race. We knew that the bike was running really well but we were a little down on top speed and we weren’t sure we could stick it out with the other riders in the early battle. Fourth place is a real bonus, especially in front of our home crowd and all the fans who came to support me.

Colin Edwards - 5th:
I didn’t get a great start but it wasn’t that bad but before I knew it I’d lost a couple of places. I didn’t have the grip in the first two laps that some of the other guys did, so I couldn’t stay with them off the corner. Once my tyres started to come in I really started to feel good, but I had to adjust my riding style with the temperature being so much higher than yesterday. The rear was coming round a bit on the entry of the corner and I started braking a lot harder, carrying less corner speed to try and conserve the tyre by picking the bike up and accelerating. It worked and I’ve got to say I’m happy with fifth. I’m happier with fifth here than I was with third in Le Mans to be honest. I expected to win at Le Mans, but my best result here has been a ninth. I’m not a guy that likes fifth, but on my biggest bogey track ever I’ll take it. We just had to run a tyre that we thought would have good endurance because in a situation where there’s hardly been any dry track time, you have to play safe. Nobody had done any endurance testing on tyres and I think the tyre I raced on I’d done about two laps on before the race! I have to say a big thanks to Michelin because they did a great job. We had no idea what the tyre would be like after 20 laps but to come from where I did showed we made a good choice. Tyre choice is critical at any track but here even more so because it is such an abrasive surface. It will destroy tyres if you are just a little bit off, so credit to Michelin. I had a good battle with James and its great to see him back in the top six. There were a couple of places like the two Arrabbiata corners where he could pull away. I felt like I could control him if I could pass him, and the key was getting by and being able to pull a gap so he couldn’t slipstream back by me. It is another great result for the team today. I’m sure if you had said to Herve that our team would be third in the team points after six races he would have taken it.

James Toseland - 6th:
That was a really hard race and I’ve got to say a massive thanks to my guys at Tech 3 because we found a set-up this morning after losing so much time with the weather and it got me in the top six. Considering the lack of dry time track time my Michelin tyres held up fantastically well too, so a big thanks to them as well. I couldn’t have done anymore. I was really close to Shinya Nakano in the first corner and that picked me up and I lost quite a few places. I kept my calm because I knew it was a long race and I didn’t want to make the same mistake as I did in Le Mans. I just had to settle down and I didn’t do anything stupid. It’s nice to follow Colin home on the same package. Colin did a great job as well. I passed him early on but he found his pace. I held him towards the end but he just found those extra few tenths a lap and that was enough for him to pass me. You can tell he has got a lot of experience on these bikes and his bike doesn’t do move so much. I feel like I’m wrestling mine a bit too much but I’m still learning. With the setting I had the bike wasn’t so stable on the faster corners but my bike is one of the best out there and thanks to Yamaha. I rode hard in that race and if I was riding this hard and finishing fourteenth my morale would be seriously dented, but when I’m riding really well and the package is working well, I’m back in the top six again and this is where I need to be.

Loris Capirossi - 7th:
I am very frustrated, because we tried to do our best and it should have been a better result for us today. I tried to stay with the three front guys for as long as I could, but I was losing a bit on the straights and I had to push really hard on the brakes and through the corners. We started to lose grip and I tried as hard as I could to finish as high as possible. I am not happy at all today and we will have to work hard with Suzuki, because sometimes our bike is good but sometimes over a longer distance we still need to work on some things to be able to make a challenge. The good thing though is that the whole team worked really hard this weekend and they are trying everything to make the bike work well.

Andread Dovizioso - 8th:
Between yesterday and today we tried two kinds of tyre – one hard that didn’t give me good grip feeling, and one medium that was better but with the possibility of the grip reducing at the end of the race. We considered our start position and chose the second tyre After a while it started to give less grip. If I didn’t have to go so quick from the start, maybe I would have chosen the first one, however it’s been a good race and I enjoyed very much the fight with Loris and he is a very good competitor.

Shinya Nakano - 9th:
It was a difficult race for us today. The start wasn’t bad and I could see the lead group ahead of me so my intention was to try and catch them. Unfortunately I lost too much time behind Nicky Hayden and when you’re fighting like that it’s hard to keep a consistent rhythm. So basically I lost touch with the group ahead of me and lost the opportunity to finish any higher up.

Chris Vermeulen - 10th:
That was a really tough race with the track being so much hotter today. It’s been difficult all weekend with the changing conditions, and unfortunately with the lack of testing time and the heat we just didn’t have the grip that we wanted - which made the bike quite difficult to ride for the whole race. I got a good start but then got boxed in and pushed wide and ended up back in 17th. So to come through to 10th I felt like I rode well. I had to pass a lot of people and that is not easy around here, but hopefully we can find out what our problems from today were and learn from them for Barcelona next week.

Sylvain Guintoli – 11th:
This morning in the warm up, thanks to the hard work of my Team, we have found a good set up of the bike to use during the race. I was confident and my start is the proof. I overtook many riders in the first turn positioning well. Then, in the second turn, someone has touched me making me lose four positions. This episode has condition me for some laps because I thought there could be something wrong with my bike, but after about a third of the race things were back to normality and I found again this morning’s rhythm. This allowed me to recover various positions overtaking in the last few laps my team-mate, Toni Elias, and Nicky Hayden. I am not excited about this race, but is surely a positive performance for my Team’s morale. Moreover is the first time I finish in front of my team-mate and I think this is positive to grow together in the next races.

Toni Elias – 12th:
I don’t have many words today, I simply never been in the race. This morning, in the last laps of the warm up, I thought I found a good technical solution, but in the race it didn’t work as good. It is a negative day for us. With the Team members, who I work really good with, we will try to study the situation to improve on my home circuit, in Barcelona, in 7 days.

Nicky Hayden - 13th:
This morning we made a nice step, we made a suspension adjustment and the bike felt a lot better, so we had a pretty good pace. We were certainly unlucky in the race. I got an awesome start, felt pretty good, but it was clear from the beginning that we had a problem. Guys started coming past and there was nothing I could do, there was no way to defend. So I just tried to get to the finish and get a couple of points.

Tadayuki Okada - 14th:
We finished the race and this was the most important thing of all – we have gathered plenty of data which we can now analyse. We still have some issues with edge grip and the next step is to improve the engine – the bike was sliding today so I couldn’t fully use its power. The engine’s strong point is its higher rev ceiling which gives an advantage on the straights. But we still need to improve driveability. My thanks to Repsol Honda and to HRC for all their work with this engine, it was very exciting for me to race in a GP again. It felt really amazing when I crossed the finish line!

Anthony West - 15th:
I'm starting to sound like a stuck record now, because every time I get off the bike I'm explaining the same problem. It's fairly simple; the rear just spins up when you get on the gas out of the turns and the bike goes sideways when it's supposed to go forwards. This is a real, physical problem, not something that exists only in Anthony West's head. Now I'm looking to the team for a solution, because I came to MotoGP to race, and so far this season I've had little opportunity to do so. Whether the team can find a solution before the next race, which is only one week away, I don't know.

Marco Melandri - DNF
De Puniet made contact with Vermeulen and crashed right in front of me. I was to the left of him so I tried to dive to the inside but there wasn't enough space. I had to go so wide so that I didn't run over Randy that I ran off track but I was going at speed and crashed. It was a shame because I'd made a decent start and passed a few riders, things were going better than they had in practice but now we'll never know if I could have kept it up over race distance. Will look at starting out in Barcelona with the same set-up we found for the race today.

Randy De Puniet - DNF:
I am very disappointed because I made a very good start, probably the best of this season, and I was in the top ten on the first lap. But I immediately felt a strange feeling in the rear and the bike started to slide and bump. I tried to keep my position but it was not possible. Then, on lap six at turn two, I overtook Vermeulen but I crashed and suffered a small injury in my left little finger. It aches a lot now but it will be OK for Barcelona.

Jorge Lorenzo - DNF:
We have had a lot of problems this weekend but today for the race I was feeling very motivated and I got a good start. I think I could have fought for the podium and I can only say sorry to my team and to all of my fans; it was my mistake. I shouldn’t have tried to pass Dovizioso in this corner, it wasn’t the right place and I will learn from it. I am not worried about my mental condition though and I am now focused on Catalunya. Montmelo is coming and this is a good thing because I only have to wait five days until I can ride the bike again. In China we had to make some changes to the bike to enable me to ride in my condition and since then maybe we haven’t been exactly right with the set-up, but now we know where the problem is. Congratulations to Rossi, he was the best today!

John Hopkins - DNF:
We saw in qualifying that we were some way off the pace in race trim, so we decided to take a chance with some fairly big changes ahead of morning warm-up today. It was a gamble that paid off, because the set-up of the bike was much improved in the race. But then, just seven laps into the race the bike developed a fault with the quickshifter and I couldn't backshift approaching turn one. With no way to scrub off speed the crash was inevitable. It was a big crash, and I count myself lucky that I managed to walk away uninjured. Obviously I'm frustrated because this is the second time in a row that a technical problem has put me out of the race. This cannot be allowed to happen again.

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