Sete Gibernau - 1st
This is a technical and difficult circuit which has a bit of everything – fast corners, slow sections, drops, rises, hard braking. More than having a perfect bike in each section, you need a good general balance. I like the track, you can have fun here and that always makes the job easier, which you can see in the result.

Marco Melandri - 2nd
The weekend started well and we have made progress in every session. After dominating the three free practice sessions I’m sorry not to have got pole but I am calm and I feel good. The bike is working well and Michelin have given me some good tyres.

Nicky Hayden - 3rd
Things are slowly getting better. The Movistar boys came out early and really jumped on the pace and got going fast. Sure it’s nice to be on the front row for tomorrow but I’ve got a few problems with a couple of sections of the track where I’m losing a lot of time so I’m not satisfied by any means with my set-up or my riding. I’m not as clean and smooth as I need to be.

Valentino Rossi - 4th
This morning was not good at all, I had some big problems and we were quite worried. Then this afternoon we made some major modifications and the bike began to work much better. In the end the lap time was not so bad and we were able to finish the session on the second row. After this morning’s troubles I am quite happy with this fourth place and maybe we can fight at the front tomorrow. We need to use the warm-up well and make a few more small changes to the set-up. I think it’s going to be a very hard race tomorrow; Melandri and Gibernau were very fast today and I think tomorrow will be a big, big battle.

Colin Edwards - 5th
We’ve struggled to find a set-up in recent weeks so here in Istanbul we’ve basically gone to Valentino’s base setting and made gradual changes to suit my style. I’ve had to adapt my riding more to a 250 style, carrying much more corner speed, and as the weekend’s gone on I’ve learnt more and more tricks that are helping me to go faster. This afternoon I felt good, I had much more confidence in the set-up and it helped me set some consistent times. To be honest I’m a little disappointed not to be on the front row because I felt like I had a 1’52 in me, but it wasn’t to be. The main thing is that we’ve made improvements and if we can keep doing that in the warm-up tomorrow then we should be okay for the race.

Toni Elias - 6th
I am very happy. We have worked very well, and always with the bike’s tank full as in race conditions. I think we have a good rhythm, but I hope we don’t have any unforeseen problems as we did at Phillip Island. It would be really good to start well tomorrow. The M1 is not an easy bike to ride, I have learnt a lot this year and am very happy with how things have gone. This morning I fell when trying to keep pace with Melandri as his tyres were fresh and mine were not.

Makoto Tamada - 7th
I am satisfied with these two days of practice. You need to be aggressive in the turns at this track because if you try to ride them in a clean way it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll lose tenths of a second. If we can improve our RC211V’s settings tomorrow morning, I am sure we can do well. But first of all I’ll have to start well because, as always, the getaway is of vital importance for the rest of the race.

Alex Barros - 8th
The bike improved a lot today. I felt much more comfortable than yesterday. We have changed everything a little bit, the gearing, the suspension, the electronic power management system, a complete 360 degree turn of all the settings, which is quite normal on a new track. We still have some small problems but I’m quite satisfied with my race pace. With the qualifying tyres I improved a little, but the third row is an average result.

Carlos Checa - 9th
Today was quite good on race tyres. I could not improve my starting position with the qualifying tyres so we will be a little behind at the start. On race tyres we are in good shape and that came through making improvements in the set-up. I will be going out to get a good position right from the start and we will see what happens. A lot of things will be decided by the initial laps but I am feeling much more comfortable than yesterday.

Shinya Nakano - 10th
For sure I expected more in qualifying, but I have a very consistent race set-up. I did many laps today on a race tyre and it appears Bridgestone are competitive at this track. Everything was okay with the bike and tyres for my qualifying runs, but the fast times just did not come - I pushed hard and made no mistakes, but this was the best I could do. I understand the track much better now and we only made small changes today, just to make the rear-end more stable. The bike is very good in race trim. The track is very enjoyable, but there are difficult sections, the downhill part after turn one and the final, slow first-gear complex is very tricky.