Valentino Rossi autobiography

This 288 page book goes into details of life of Valentino Rossi, one of the best MotoGP racers ever. Autobiography provides inside details of both on-track and off-track life of living motorcycle legend, allowing reader to get better understanding of life and achievement of Valentino Rossi.
Buy - More details
HighRevs Shop

2008-03-09  Rider impressions after historic Qatar qualifying
Be first to comment this story

Historic night qualifying in Qatar brought to top some new riders, shown new constellation of powers and promised great MotoGP racing night in Qatar and other places in MotoGP calendar. There is much impressions in the paddock after qualifying session dominated by rookies, so read some of them. Jorge Lorenzo - pole position - 1:53.927, 22 laps: Only in my dreams did I imagine being on pole at my very first MotoGP race; I can’t believe it! This is something great for all of Yamaha; there are three Yamaha riders on the front row and this shows how hard they have been working. Tonight my M1 was working very well and with the Michelin qualifying tyres it was excellent, but also our race pace is very good. Tomorrow will of course be very difficult; it’s my first MotoGP race so there is a lot to think about, but I am excited and of course we will try to do our best and see what happens! The team and Michelin have done a great job over the winter so this is a thank you to them. I will try to get a good start and I will have to concentrate very hard on the first lap when the tyres are cold, and then we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow is another day however and f or the moment I just want to think about this and celebrate a special night\ for me and for Yamaha. James Toseland - 2nd - 1:54.182, 21 laps: I didn’t think I’d be in this position tonight. But why not do it again tomorrow? The team has been brilliant to teach me how to ride a MotoGP bike so fast in such a short space of time. It has been awesome. I had seven years of a great life and a great career in World Superbikes and to become champion twice was amazing. Fortunately I made the gamble to come to MotoGP from that comfort zone and I wanted this success. But I know it can’t come without a great team behind you. The Tech 3 team has had a coupe of difficult years, but definitely not because of the team principal and mechanics. They are a great team and to have Colin also on the front row shows what quality we have. I just want to thank Herve Poncharal and all the boys, and also Yamaha. This is my first time working with this manufacturer and they have showed what effort they are putting into MotoGP. Michelin had a difficult year last season but they have worked really hard through the winter to get this success. I had three qualifying tyres and used one quite early. I didn’t know whether the humidity would get to a stage where there was a bit of moisture on he track like we had in the test last week. I wanted to make sure we got a decent lap in. On my fastest lap unfortunately I caught a couple of riders in a difficult part of the track in the last split and did a 54.1. I knew on a perfect lap there was a 1.53 in there but with one minute to go I could still see my number 52 at the top of the scoreboard. Credit to Jorge though for actually doing that 1.53. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I will give it out best shot. Colin Edwards - 3rd - 1:54.499, 22 laps: It has been great this winter. We have been working really hard. That’s everybody in the Tech 3 team, Yamaha and Michelin. People ask me how I keep motivated for an old guy but when you have people around working hard for you and with you it is easy. We have all worked hard and this is a great start. I couldn’t be more pleased for the Tech 3 team and I have to say thanks to Herve Poncharal. He has got a fantastic team. He struggled through a couple of difficult years and its testament of how good the team is for us to get this result. But we can’t get carried away. We are still going to have to ride hard tomorrow. It is no secret we have a little speed deficit on the straight and we can't take any prisoners tomorrow. It will be a hard race and we will have to take a few chances and see what happens. But it will be a great spectacle. I love riding under the lights. It reminds of being a kid out on the motocross track. Casey Stoner  - 4th - 1:54.733: To be honest I expected to be on the second row so I'm not too disappointed with the result, although I reckon that if I had another qualifying tyre like the one I set my fast lap on I could have comfortably been on the front. Anyway, sometimes there are certain things you can't plan for and the important thing is that we're in a good position for the race. We made one big change to the bike for third free practice and it was really positive but in tonight's qualifying session we tried a few things that didn't have the effect we'd hoped for, so we'll go back to what we know works and I think that with a few more small changes we can be really competitive. There a lot of people with good race times, especially Lorenzo, so it will be interesting to see where everybody is in the warm-up. I know Jorge well from my 125 and 250 days so I'm not surprised that he and Andrea (Dovizioso) are fast but I must admit I didn't expect James Toseland to be so strong and I take my hat off to him. If it comes down to a battle between us it won't be anything different to any other race - everybody on the grid is a strong rival and they all have to be beaten. Nicky Hayden - 6th - 1:54.880: We improved a lot this afternoon… heck, it’s the middle of the night! My first two runs on race tyres I improved quite a bit and in the end I was able to get a respectable lap on qualifies, nothing great, but I was able to give ourselves a decent chance. The big thing around here for us is the straightaway, we’re losing quite a bit of time, the bike I’ m using is what I had at Valencia. I’m really excited to be going racing. I’d like to have a better race pace and all that but it is what it is and it’s time to line up and go for it. I’m enjoying riding at night, I think it’s cool, I hope some more tracks decide to get some lighting systems going. A big thanks to my team and to HRC, these guys have worked so hard, it’s silly how hard they have worked over the last week to get more bikes here, get more options for us, build a different chassis for Dani’s bike which seems to be a good step so I’m sure the next time I get on the 08 I’ll try one of those. Valentino Rossi - 7th - 1:55.133, 24 laps: After the test we knew that we weren’t going to be in perfect shape for the qualifying; we tried a few modifications but we weren’t able to completely fix the problem and so I couldn’t challenge for the front row. This aside however, I’m pleased with the progress we made today and our race pace is much better than yesterday. We’re still missing a couple of tenths from the front but we have a few small modifications planned and I think we’re in okay shape for the race. The third row isn’t great but we know that the Bridgestone tyres work very well straight away and so if I get a good start then I hope I can challenge at the front. The bike is feeling good, we’ve found some more grip compared to yesterday and for sure I can say that we’re in better shape than last year. Congratu lations to Lorenzo because he was very impressive tonight and this shows that our bike is very good. It’s only the first race and I’m quite relaxed; I feel good on the bike, I can ride it exactly how I want to and now we’re just waiting for tomorrow. Dani Pedrosa - 8th - 1:55.170: We struggled with qualifying tyres and we couldn’t improve my times so much, so we will start from the third row. We haven’t tested so much with qualifying tyres so we need more testing to improve our qualifying setup. I’m not happy about my grid position but I’m better off than I was during last week’s tests here. I am happy about how the bike has improved in such a short time. Now we have another 20 minutes during warm-up to further improve it. As for race pace, we are not at the level of the fastest riders but we have improved. And if we consider the fact that we didn’t so much testing during the winter, that I’ve had a bad hand injury and that we had problems in testing here, I think the situation isn’t so bad. After yesterday’s crash the hand was very painful. I’ve had some t reatment on the hand and we will work some more on it tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to the race, the only problem could be the strength of my right arm over full-race distance. Andrea Dovizioso – 9th - 1:55.185: During free practice we decided to try some solution which didn’t give us the expected results and in qualifying trim with qualifying tyres we were not in the best condition to use the maximum potential of those soft tyres. A small lack of confidence in the front qualifying tyre didn’t give me chance to use the incredible potential of the rear tyre. We’re going to work on that as we have the chance to do much better. For the race we’re in good shape, which I think will allow us to be consistent. Obviously starting from the third row is not the best, but I hope to run up the front as soon as I can in the early laps. Warm-up will be helpful to work a little more on suspension settings and get better stability in braking, which is the thing I need to sort out as it’s proved a little complicated to solve. I will start very relaxed as I’m convinced the tyre choice I made for 22-lap race and my setting in race configuration will give me massive confidence for the race itself. John Hopkins - 10th - 1:55.263: We went out tonight with the task of finalising our race tyre. The track grip has increased considerably since the test last week and the tyre we started with was a little too soft, so we're now going to opt for a harder compound. We then started using the qualifying tyres, which have been difficult in the cold as, while riding, I have to try to keep the front end hot but the rear cool to make a good lap. We did the best we could and I gave it my all, although we just missed out on the third row. The fourth row isn't exactly where we wanted to be but we have a good race pace and I didn't feel the injury tonight once the adrenalin was pumping, so I'm confident we can do a good job tomorrow. We've got a few improvements to make overnight and the plan is to get a good start and be in the midst of the action. I'm really looking forward to it. Chris Vermeulen - 11th - 1:55.540: We made a lot more progress with the bike today and also my own performance around this track improved. We got into a good rhythm in the first session and at the end I was well inside the top-10 on race tyres. The bike felt good and I could consistently and easily keep doing those times. The qualifying was a different story and it was plain to see that the other tyre manufacturer had an advantage on us on qualifiers, which makes it difficult having to start from back on the fourth row. As for tomorrow’s race I’ll go out and give it 100% and I know my race pace is better than some of the guys in front of me so I’ll see how we can go! Loris Capirossi - 13th - 1:56.070: I think we can still make a big step in the race conditions and get a good result from here. From when we tried the qualifiers in the test last week, I chose the wrong ones this week. I had only two qualifiers to Chris’s three and maybe he had two slightly better ones, as well as one the same as me, and he said it didn’t work well for him either. Anyway this was my choice and I know it was a mistake. I am sure that the race will be much better for us. Toni Elias – 14th - 1:56.251, 19 laps: I am not happy about this position. I am sure that our potential can allow us to be further up in the standing, but as I said in the past days, we are a bit behind with the job and we must improve both in the race and in qualifying. The bike is really strong, it’s only matter of time and work, soon we will fight for better positions. We hope to start well in the race and fight at our best for the all race.” Marco Melandri - 16th - 1:56.730: Unfortunately there's not much to say about today because things haven't gone well. We've tried a lot of things but nothing has had the result we hoped for. I'm not able to ride well and we just can't seem to find the grip on the front or the rear so I'm just too slow. We want to try out so many things but there's no more time so we'll just have to see how we go in the race Sylvain Guintoli – 17th - 1:57.198 – 18 laps: Unluckily I woke up this morning with a bit of fever and a bad cold. When I am on track I sweat a lot even if the air temperatures are low. I didn’t find the feeling with the bike for the all weekend, I can’t push to the limit. I hope that tomorrow morning during warm up we will make it to find a good compromise which will allow me to fight for better positions. In this moment I am not enjoying riding at all. It has been a strange weekend so far. Anthony West - 18th - 1:57.445: I certainly didn't expect to come into the new season and qualify dead last on the grid and, obviously, I'm far from happy with how things have gone over the past two days. John has shown that it's possible to get the bike and the tyres working here but, if I'm completely honest, for me it's been more a problem of confidence than set-up. I just don't feel comfortable on the bike; every session I've come close to crashing in the strangest places and I just don't know why. Of course, I'll sit down with my crew tonight to see if we can come up with some options to try in warm-up tomorrow but it's difficult when there isn't a specific problem we can point to and then work to resolve. Despite the problems we've had over the past two days, I'll still be going out in tomorrow's race to push as hard as I can for a good result because that's what I'm here for. Complete qualifying results - Qatar 2008

Back to MotoGP news home

	Web www.HighRevs.net

Casey Stoner 2010 Ducati

Diecast model of the 2010 Ducati Desmosedici GP10 of Casey Stoner. This 1:10 model is a valuable piece of MotoGP history, being the bike Stoner last ridden before his switch to Honda.
Buy - More details
HighRevs Shop