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2007-10-22 Rider quotes after Malaysian Grand Prix
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Usual race in Sepang - Casey Stoner on one end, Kurtis Roberts on the other. Others shuffled in the midle. Not much excitement, overtaking, at least not in front. Read rider thoughts after the race.
Casey Stoner - 1st:
The bike, the tyres and everything were performing really well but it was a very, very difficult race. The biggest battle I had was being out front by myself and not having anyone to focus on. I've been fine with it all year but this track seems to take it out of you a little bit more. Sometime after half-distance I had a couple of front-end loses, so I had to change my style a little bit, the way I was going into corners, to make sure I didn't lose the front any more. That took up a lot more of my energy and concentration, so it was quite hard to keep it up at the end. The reason the gap was going up and down so much was because I was trying to get a break for one lap, just to recover a little bit.
Unfortunately I'd let them catch too much, so then I'd have to really concentrate for another lap which would take more of my energy away, so I think I'm very lucky and very happy to come out on top. Marco and Dani were fast right to the end, they were putting a lot of pressure on me and they never let me go. After I crossed the line I started to feel a bit dizzy, so it was definitely a hard race.
Marco Melandri - 2nd:
We had a very good warm-up this morning and I was very confident for the race. I was strong in the twisty part of the track but Dani had incredible acceleration – better than the Ducati. I tried to pass him as quick as possible to try and pass Casey (Stoner) and I made a mistake and lost a second. But I pushed to catch him and was at one second with six laps to go. But I couldn’t do it so with two to go I concentrated on preserving my position. We had a very good bike and tyre package today.
Dani Pedrosa - 3rd:
I pushed very hard at the beginning because from what we’d seen in practice I was expecting the grip level from the tyres to fall away towards the end of the race. My plan was to make a gap if possible and handle the grip situation as well as I could. For the first laps I was quite consistent behind Casey but when I started to brake later with a full tank of fuel I was losing the front-end, so I dropped back a little and that’s when Marco passed me. At that stage I was trying to maintain my rhythm and, as the race went on and the fuel load came down, I began to get a better feeling at the front of the machine under braking. I was really surprised about the high pace in the final part of the race because we didn’t expect to maintain these lap times based on what we’d seen in practice.
Randy de Puniet - 4th:
I’m very happy, it was a good race. For the first time in 17 rounds, I managed a good start and then I took Melandri by the first corner, holding third for a few laps. After that he passed me and I tried to stay with the leading group. I did make some small mistakes during the race but the gap between me and the others didn't change and towards the end I got within less than a second of Pedrosa. But then I had a few problems with stability under braking and decided to hold my place rather than push too hard and take any risks. The bike worked very well today and I'm so happy with this result.
Valentino Rossi - 5th:
Of course I'm disappointed with fifth place, but I am very happy with my race today. It's a pity because we had great potential this afternoon and, if we had been able to start from the front row, I think we could have fought for the victory. We made some modifications today and luckily everything worked much better during the race than it had during practice. We were fast this afternoon, we had a great rhythm but unfortunately we really lost the race yesterday in qualifying! I took some time to find my rhythm at the start of the race but once I did I realised I had a great pace and that my bike and tyres were working very well. I tried to catch de Puniet but, even though I was a tiny bit faster than him, the difference was only one or two tenths and so it wasn't enough to be able to make up three seconds. My Michelin tyre worked very well to the end today so this is encouraging for Valencia, where we will be trying one more time to win before the end of the season.
Toni Elias - 6th:
I’m happy with this result. Everything was working well in the warm-up and things improved even further with the higher temperatures in the afternoon. I had some good battles out there as I came through the pack. Once the tyres went off, I just focused on hanging on for a result. Compared to Phillip Island, we've made a big step forward here and I'm now looking forward to the last race at Valencia, in Spain, in front of my fans.
Chris Vermeulen - 7th:
It was a tough race and I am totally exhausted! I got in a little battle with a few guys at the start, but John and myself both made little mistakes and we dropped back a couple of spots. I also had a bit of a vibration issue with the bike under acceleration and it took me a while to figure out how to ride fast with that. I just got my head down and pushed as hard as I could and then I saw on my pit-board that it was plus-zero with John and it stayed that way for the whole race! We passed each other a number of times and I eventually got in front and held him off. It was good to beat him as it closes the gap in the championship, but we weren’t near the podium and we still have a lot of work to do. We are here tomorrow for a further test and I am sure we can work out a lot of stuff.
John Hopkins - 8th:
Going in to today’s race we had pretty high hopes with the way the bike and tyres were working this weekend, but it just didn’t really happen for us. I got off the line pretty well and through turn one and then I made a few mistakes in the first few laps and even ran off the track at one time. From then on it was just a Rizla Suzuki battle with me and Chris going back-and-forth. It was good to race with him and it was a bit of fun, but I wish we had been fighting for one-and-two or two-and-three, but it was not to be! I have got to say hats off to all my mechanics this weekend they have been working really hard and sweating their butts off! We now have to go to Valencia and claw our way back into fourth place in the championship at the last race of the year.
Nicky Hayden - 9th:
The team did a really good job this weekend and the bike was working very well in the race. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great start and on the first lap or two I got boxed in everywhere and I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That cost me a lot of positions but once things settled down I started moving forward and was going well. Then, passing Elias at the end of the back straight, I got in too hot and it was a silly mistake which I’m not happy about. I was in the draft and just got into the corner a little too fast. After that I got back on the track, put my head down and I’m actually proud of the way we recovered.
Colin Edwards - 10th:
I got a bad start and had a bad few corners, but once I'd got settled I managed to get past a couple of guys and push on a bit. After a while I got Vermeulen and Hopkins in my sights and I was trying pretty hard to close the gap to them, but I couldn't get closer than about 0.8 seconds. Towards the end I started to feel pretty light-headed - I was feeling the remnants of when I was sick earlier in the week - and everything was really a bit of a blur for the last few laps. I had a terrible headache and in this heat it's hard to concentrate if you're not at 100%, and unfortunately I couldn't hold Hayden off at the end. It's been another tough weekend for us but once again it could have been worse and I want to say thanks again to everyone for working so hard and keeping morale going during a difficult couple of races.
Loris Capirossi - 11th:
I don't really know what happened today. It was a very tough race for me, and it's a shame because this is one of my favourite tracks and I came into this weekend from two very good races. Unfortunately our package didn't work as well today as it did in the previous races, we had some difficulties, so I was fighting with Barros for 11th place, which isn't the kind of result I was hoping for here. I hope things go better at Valencia.
Alex Barros - 12th:
I'm not happy with the race I just finished. At the beginning, the motor's performance wasn't as good as we expected and I couldn't get into a good rhythm. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but the engineers are analyzing the data. The Team has worked so hard, and I hope that things will go better in Valencia.
Nobuatsu Aoki - 13th:
First of all I would like to say thanks to all of my guys for their help this weekend, but especially thanks to Mr Oonishi who decided to bring the prototype machine here for me to ride and I am very honoured and grateful to him for that. Until yesterday we had many small problems with the bike but the mechanics and engineers worked so hard last night and today the bike performed perfect! For a shakedown race this was a good start and in two weeks time we will hand the bike over to the Grand Prix team, but until then we will try to improve it a little bit more. We will also keep working on it in the winter tests so it will be right when next season comes. Once again I would like to show my appreciation to everybody involved this weekend.
Carlos Checa - 14th:
I knew this was going to be a difficult race but it was better than I expected and I did the maximum. During practice and qualifying I never found a good feeling with the bike and set-up for this track. But it was a little better in the race and I was able to run consistent lap times. The best was 2m 04.1s and our target was to get into high 2’03s so that was a little disappointing. Now I’m just looking ahead to the final race of the season in Valencia in Spain.
Anthony West - 15th:
When I saw the ride through penalty on my pit board, I didn't know what it was for as I knew I hadn't jumped the start. I didn't know exactly what was wrong until I came back in at the end of the race. I made up a few places, even though I felt pretty flat after the ride through. I was really frustrated but then I saw I was catching up with some guys and kept on fighting although, to be honest, I didn't feel completely motivated and I'm sure that'll be reflected in my lap times. The weekend had been so fantastic before this so I'm gutted. I'll have to come back and take my revenge on Sepang next year.
Shinya Nakano - 16th:
Today has been very difficult for the team and myself and I am very disappointed with the result as Sepang is one of my favourite tracks. This morning we improved some settings on the front of the bike and it did feel better than before. I was fighting with Carlos Checa and Nobuatsu Aoki but I couldn’t follow them so finally I just tried to keep my lap times consistent and hold position to get that last point. In the last couple of laps Anthony West passed me for the last point. During the race we once more had chattering problems from the front-end of the bike and the machine hasn’t turned as well as I would have wanted. As a result my corner speed has been slow and we’ve struggled a lot. We will all work hard to turn this into a positive result for the last race at Valencia.
Chaz Davies - 17th:
This has been a difficult race for me. I got a good start, but in the second corner I was on the outside and three or four guys got past me. After that, I tried to stick with the group of Checa, Nakano, and Aoki, but I wasn't able to. The set-up of the bike was better today, but it still wasn't enough to fight for the points. I'm not happy with this race, but I hope to do better in Valencia because that is a track I like and it's where I've had my best finish before.
Kurtis Roberts - 20th:
I ran off the track after the first six or seven laps, and when you're already at the back then you lose that much time, then you're about a minute behind. It kind of sucks as far as that goes. But I just tried to stay in there and get more used to the bike, changing settings, and figuring out what to do for Valencia to make it better. Maybe we can reward everyone's work. The mechanics and crew guys have all worked really hard, so like to give them something to cheer about. I started changing the traction control settings, and I found what worked. I took it all the way off, then I could turn the bike better, and it improved the lap time. This is my first year of riding with traction control. I've never liked it, but you can find a way to ride round the problems and maybe get rid of it, get the set-up better and maybe go faster. The fastest lap I did all weekend was with it off.
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