Valentino Rossi cap

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2007-07-14  Rider claims after Sachsenring qualifying
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Casey Stoner was man on the mission this weekend, dominating all possible sessions at Sachsenring. However, Dani Pedrosa has shown some serious pace and determination during qualifying session, promissing exciting race tomorrow. Read rider expectations after Sachsenring qualifying. Casey Stoner - pole position - 1:22.384 The bike's worked out of the box this weekend, we haven't really improved the lap times that much from the first session, just by a few tenths. Everybody else has pretty much been playing catch up. I did my quickest time on my first qualifying tyre, which isn't normally the case, I normally go a lot faster on my second qualifier. I made a big mistake with my second, coming over the top of the hill, I ran wide onto the outside kerb on the entrance to the corner. I brought it back on track and we still only ended up a tenth slower than my best lap and it was a big, big mistake. I lost a few tenths, so I could've been a lot faster again. I was a bit disappointed with that mistake but anyway we managed to keep pole and we have been fast in every session. The other guys were chasing a time I wasn't really happy with and they still didn't manage to beat it, so it's looking good. I'm hoping it's a similar situation to Turkey where we were quite a lot faster than the others on race pace. Like most weekends we're pretty happy before we go into the race, so we'll just see what happens. We may not be able to win it but I know we're going to be able to fight for a podium. It's very, very hot and I've heard it's going to be hotter tomorrow, so fitness and tyres are going to come into it at the end. Dani Pedrosa - 2nd: I’m happy to be on the front row because this is a tight track where it’s quite difficult to overtake so to be up front is going to be important. Of course it would have been nice to be on pole position like last year, and we came very close, but I’m not disappointed with the result this afternoon. This morning was not so good and we tried a few things that didn’t immediately improve the machine. However, it helped us find a better direction in the afternoon and I was able to ride at a fast, consistent pace on race tyres, so I think our set-up is quite good – for the beginning of the race at least. The critical thing will be how things are going from the mid-point onwards because this is where we have struggled a little in some races. Marco Melandri - 3rd: It’s a nice feeling to be back on the front row. Thanks to the new material we’ve been given here at the Sachsenring we’ve been able to make a big step forward. The bike is good fun to ride and I’ve got a good feeling. I made a small mistake in turn one on the qualifying tyre and only missed out on pole by a small fraction but I’m still satisfied with this result. On such a tight circuit, especially in the first sections, it is important to be starting from the front of the grid. Randy de Puniet - 4th: On the last lap, I pushed very hard in T1 and T2 because normally they're not my strongest parts of the track. By the end of T2 I was faster than pole position but, when I went in to turn six, I was going too fast and crashed but I'm lucky, I've just got some pain in my back and nothing's broken. My grid position isn't so bad but today I could have got pole. Still, I think my bike is ready for tomorrow, I managed consistent lap times today and yesterday's chatter is pretty much gone. We have a good set up and, if I can get a decent start, I feel we can do well. John Hopkins - 5th: The whole of today has gone pretty well! We had to get the bike and tyres dialled in to the hot track. We are expecting these sorts of temperatures in the race tomorrow, so it was all vital practice. We have got a strong race set-up and a really good set of tyres in our allocation that we are looking forward to using in the race. Right now the crew is working hard and I am working hard to get everything right for tomorrow. I still have a few things to improve on overnight, so that I can come out as prepared as possible! In qualifying I made a bit of a mistake on the first lap and then got held up by some other riders on the second one. That meant the pressure was on with my final lap, and I made a couple of mistakes on the last two corners and didn’t get round them as quick as I would have liked, or I’m sure I would have been on the front row, if not on pole! A couple of guys are running a really high race pace so I will have to try and match them and then better them at the end tomorrow! Valentino Rossi - 6th: I was quite confident of a better qualification today but unfortunately we had a problem with our qualifying tyre and I lost some time at the end. It's a difficult weekend because everyone is very close and the level is very high! I think we can expect another great battle tomorrow. My pace and rhythm is quite good, not the best but still not so bad, so I think that if I can make a good start then I will be able to fight at the front. The problem here is that it's a hard track to overtake on and now the fast right, which was a good place for passing before, isn't so good with the new 800s. Anyway, we have some modifications still to make and we have to decide on the right tyre, so hopefully we can still improve more. Looking at the times it seems that Pedrosa is very strong here, with the best pace, and actually this is encouraging because he's on Michelin's too. Of course with Stoner on pole we know that he too will be a hard rival. Anyway, sixth is not so bad - last year here we started tenth and in Assen eleventh and we won both times so we're definitely not too worried! It's going to be hard, especially if it's hot like this, but we will do our best as always. Loris Capirossi - 7th: I'm just a little bit more than two tenths off pole, so we are all really very close. Anyway, I'm very happy with my race pace which is quite good even though I didn't use my favourite tyre, because I've got to save that one for the race. I used a different tyre, which I like a bit less, and I was still able to do a 23.2, so things aren't so bad. Our qualifying tyres are also not so bad, just a fraction too hard so that during your first flying lap you aren't able to go 100 per cent, and then the tyre lasts only another half lap. But the most important thing is that I did two good sessions today. I always rode alone, adjusting the set-up with my team step by step and lapping at a pace that was close to the fastest guys. Starting from seventh on the grid is also not so bad, so I'm really confident I can have a good race. Alex Barros - 8th: First of all, I would to thank all the Clinica Mobile medical staff who have given me a lot of help since yesterday’s crash. This morning, as I was about to leave the garage for the morning free practice, I felt a strong pain in my hand and I had to stop my practice session and go to the Clinical Mobile.  They did a great job, and I was able to contest my Qualifying practice in the afternoon in much better shape. This afternoon I had hoped I could do a little better, but I’m quite satisfied because a third row start isn’t so bad, and with my hand condition I couldn’t do more. The thing that makes me confident is that I did my best lap times with race tires, so we are well positioned to have a good race. Now I hope to have a good start and that my hand won’t be hurting too much; but as I have already said, I have a lot of faith in the medical staff’s ability, and I’m sure that I will be able to ride as hard as possible. Shinya Nakano - 10th: If I look behind me there are some very fast riders! My qualifying lap was not perfect, I made some small mistakes but I felt like I finally had the chance to push harder. We were faster than yesterday even with race tyres and we’ve improved the gearbox settings for some of the corners and altered the suspension so we’ve got good braking stability now, which is good. On some of the high-speed corners I’m slower than other guys so we will try a different rear setting for tomorrow. Chris Vermeulen - 11th: We made some more improvements to the bike this afternoon and we have found a combination of race tyres that we are really happy with. I felt good with my race pace and went the quickest I’ve gone all weekend. With the extra heat on the track, grip was always an issue, and I did lose the front on the last qualifying lap, but managed to stay on! It’s not great being in 11th, but we are only 0.6-of-a-second off pole. This is close racing so if I can get off the start well, my race pace is there – it’s a lot better than where we qualified! I just need to get my passing mind in and my elbows out and get going from the off! Anthony West - 12th: Today was my first really good go on the qualifying tyres and I was surprised how quickly I was able to ride on the first set. We then put the second set on and, to be honest, I could have gone faster but I'm still trying to get used to the feel of them. On the last set, I was going really well, with the fastest overall times in the first two splits, but then I completely stuffed up the last corner. Somehow, I ended up in third gear whereas I usually take it in second: big mistake. Our overall set up's not too bad, there's still a bit of a problem with some vibration, but other than that the bike's feeling great and should be good for the race. I'm really happy I've had time to try different things out here with the bike for a few days in the dry and yeah, I'm very pleased with my position. Colin Edwards - 13th: We're struggling here, there's no other way to put it. Yesterday I thought we were okay and would be even better today but, despite improving our times, we've moved progressively further down the time sheets. It's not an easy track and unfortunately we can't seem to find the key. It wasn't terrible with the qualifying tyre and the first half of the lap, which is slower and tighter, was great but then I was dropping seven tenths in the last half without knowing why - I was riding pretty hard out there! The bike feels a little bit unsettled and we can't quite put our fingers on why so we'll be studying the data tonight, seeing what we can come up with in practice and then I'll just have to get my head down from the start and push as hard as I can. Nicky Hayden - 14th: This morning things were definitely going a bit better and I was able to go quite a bit faster with some decent consistency. We needed that session after losing a lot of time yesterday. This afternoon we made some more setting changes but it actually made us go backwards a little bit and I couldn’t get into a good rhythm. And then I had problems on both my qualifying runs. On the first qualifying tyre I had a decent lap going but in the last corner Checa actually ran across the track in front of me and I had to abort the lap. He’s a brave man. He’d crashed and to be honest I’d have probably done the same to get back to the pits in qualifying, but I’d probably look first. Carlos Checa - 15th: I feel comfortable and competitive here, the updated chassis from Honda has better balance and improved turning although we still have to discover how it reacts to set-up changes. Tomorrow I will do further comparisons with the new chassis against the standard RC212V, but so far it is a positive feeling. We still need to improve front tyre contact through the uphill turns, plus today the engine set-up was a little aggressive. Tyre performance was consistent and grip levels OK on the new surface, except for the bumps at turn 12. Alex Hofmann - 16th: I’m not very happy - my result wasn’t good and tomorrow will be a difficult race for me. This afternoon we started the qualifying session well, and with the race set-up we had a solid race pace, but when we dropped the qualifying tires on, I wasn’t able to improve my times as much as I wanted to. My grid position is really a penalty for this race, because this track doesn’t offer a lot of places to overtake. I hope to finish the race in the top-ten, but I know that will be very difficult for me, because my hand isn’t completely healed. Michel Fabrizio - 17th: Every time I’ve been out my feeling with the bike has improved and so has my rhythm. Compared to yesterday we’ve taken a big step forward, although I could have done with two more sessions to get to know the bike even more. The track was quite new for me too – I haven’t raced at the Sachsenring since 2003 – so I am happy with how things are going. Kurtis Roberts - 19th: Once we got a front tyre that worked, it cured a lot of the handling problems. It's been real frustrating here all weekend, because we just keep going around in circles. Normally, every time we throw in a front qualifier, it chatters its brains out. But we were OK at the end. If we can get the thing to work like we did at the end of the session, we can race with those guys. If we can’t, it’s just going to be a lonely boring race.

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YZR-M1 Valentino Rossi 2008

Diecast model of Valentino Rossi 2008 Yamaha YZR-M1 in scale 1:12 from Minichamps. Get this fantastic bike Rossi rode to 2008 MotoGP title.
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