Rider quotes after MotoGP Le Mans race:Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha – 1st:“Never in all my dreams did I imagine this situation today – winning the race and leading the championship.
This season I have been much more calm and careful and so I was really upset after the crash in Jerez because I didn’t expect it! Today has made up for that though.
I had a very good pace with both types of tyre and the strategy of our team worked perfectly.
I felt happy to stay out on the wet tyres for such a long time and in the end I think we changed at exactly the right time for our race; there was some luck on our side but we were also strong, calm and careful and this paid off.
It was the first time in my life that I’ve had to change bikes during the race and I was very nervous, but it went smoothly and I was able to rejoin in the lead.
I’m sorry for Valentino because it was bad luck to crash, but now we are nearly on the same points and it seems like the championship is starting again! I want to thank my team because they were very clever today, I’m so happy to be here and to have won a third MotoGP race.
”Marco Melandri – Hayate Racing – 2nd:It is awesome to be back on the podium.
One month and a half ago, to imagine tasting the champagne again would have been so difficult, so it is one of the best feelings I have had in my life.
I had a very difficult 2008 season and now I am working to get my speed back.
It was tough because at the beginning my wet tyres were probably a bit too soft for the conditions that we had and every lap I wanted to change the bike, but it was still too early.
When I changed the bike maybe I should have done it a lap later, so I just tried not to make any mistakes and just keep the pace.
In the end I managed to have a really good race.
I know it will be tough at Mugello but I just want to enjoy today.
I must say thanks to my team and to Carmelo Ezpeleta (Dorna CEO) who helped me to come back in after Kawasaki pulled out.
It would be a dream to get a good result in Mugello, so I hope to get into the top ten there.
”Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda – 3th:“Again, this is a fantastic podium for me because the conditions were very difficult today and in the end we came through it with a good result.
At the start of the race it really wasn’t clear what the best thing to do was.
In the first few laps in the wet my pace wasn’t very fast and I was going backwards and losing positions.
So I decided to stop quite early and change to the machine with dry tyres – at the same time as Rossi.
On the first lap out of the pits on slick tyres he crashed in front of me and this made me even more nervous about the conditions.
I really couldn’t see where it was wet and where it was dry so my lap times at this stage were not good – something like 1m 55s.
I lost a lot of time at this stage.
But then towards the end of the race when I had sufficient temperature in my tyres I was able to get into a rhythm and go faster and faster – eventually closing the gap on Andrea.
In the end I caught and passed him on the last lap – really close to the finish.
He was riding very well and made it hard to pass, but I was able to get the place, so I’m happy with the podium today.
”Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda – 4th:“I’m disappointed because we had a good race, the podium was very near and then I lost it at the very last lap.
So I’m sorry for the team because they’ve done a very good job throughout the weekend and a podium finish would have been a fitting ending.
At the beginning of the race it was a really tricky situation.
We had a fast pace in the wet even though we hadn’t tested in these conditions.
I was in second place when I came into the pits to change the bike because the track was drying quickly.
It was the first time that I’ve done this bike-change procedure and I think it works well.
Our timing was okay – though maybe we could have come in two laps earlier.
Anyway, I rejoined in third position, I was racing for the podium and I had a good rhythm, but it was not enough and Dani came alongside on the straight on the last lap.
I tried to close the door, braking hard, but he had the inside line and that means you’re in control of the corner.
I ran a little bit wide on the exit so I couldn’t try to catch him.
It was disappointing for me but Dani was fast, especially in the last four laps when his pace was in the low 1m 35s, so my compliments to him.
”Casey Stoner – Ducati Marlboro Team – 5th: “I’m pretty disappointed because I don’t think we realised our potential at all today – the wet bike we started with had a big problem and I couldn’t find any traction from the warm-up lap.
I never felt comfortable and I was losing a lot of time but it still wasn’t dry enough to come in for slick tyres.
Then when I switched over my other bike had a problem with the steering damper and after four laps I had to take my hand off the gas coming down the straight to fix it.
After that I felt much better, the bike was more comfortable and I was able to ride to my potential.
I think if it wasn’t for that we would have been able to battle for the podium today but unfortunately these things happen sometimes and we just have to hope things work out better next time.
I now really look forward to Mugello, one of my favourite.
I‘ve got some good results there and I feel we have a bit better package this year compared to the last one so hopefully we should be able to fight more at the front”.
Chris Vermeulen – Rizla Suzuki – 6th:“It was a really difficult race – which I am sure everyone else will say.
We started on wets and we hadn’t done any wet testing so it was really tough for the engineers to get the bike set up for the conditions.
They did a really good job and the bike felt reasonable, but if it had been a practice session we would certainly have come in to make changes.
When the track started to dry out I saw Rossi crash and thought that it wasn’t dry enough for slicks yet, so I stayed out a bit longer – probably a couple of laps too long – and it made things a bit difficult towards the end.
We finished sixth and that is our best result so far this season and it gives us some good points.
Now we are looking to improve on that in Mugello.
”Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 7th :“I’m really disappointed because it was definitely a missed opportunity today for a podium.
In the first part of the race on the wet tyres I just couldn’t get the bike to turn.
I’d lost so many places I was nearly at the back and I just wasn’t comfortable.
The bike was just sitting on the rear and I had no weight on the front, so I couldn’t get into the corner.
I saw some guys come into the pits and I thought it was a couple of laps too early because there were still some wet patches out there.
I waited for a bit and came in and on the first couple of laps back out of the pits I lost so much time again.
I was on the hard front tyre because I can’t run the soft compound and it took a while to get some heat into it.
I had a couple of moments but once it came good, it came really good and I got my head down.
I think only Jorge (Lorenzo) was lapping faster than me and once I got my pace going I was catching people pretty quickly.
To only finish seventh is a bit frustrating when you look at my times in the dry.
At the end of the day I rode a good second half of the race.
But the first half wasn’t great and that cost me.
I’m confident for Mugello though and hopefully we’ll get plenty of dry track time.
”Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki – 8th:“We changed to a slick tyre really early on in the race and it was still a bit too wet to do that.
It wasn’t really a mistake, more a gamble that didn’t work, as I made a couple of mistakes on the damp patches and ran off.
I tried to keep my rhythm, but I found I had the same problem as yesterday that when the track dried out I just didn’t have enough grip.
I tried hard, but Colin went past in the last few laps and I just didn’t have enough to attack him back.
We have now finished our work here and we must try to take the good points from it and think about the future and the next couple of races.
”James Toseland – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 9th:“That was pretty eventful and my team did a great job for the change of bikes.
I’ve never been in a flag-to-flag race before and it is definitely different.
There’s no time to lose concentration in the pits because everything is still happening so quickly.
And when you go out on a damp track on slicks you can’t lose focus.
The team told me they were going to put ‘OK’ on the board as soon as the first person came in, and though nobody was coming in around me, I felt I came in at the right time.
It’s always a risk because there were a couple of corners where it was still quite damp, but for two-thirds of the track you definitely needed slick tyres.
My pace on the slicks at the start was really good and I was seventh at one point.
But I was on the soft front tyre and it kept getting hotter and hotter and the stronger front harder tyre was what I needed.
When I was trying to stay with Colin at the end I just didn’t have the front grip unfortunately.
It was nice to be fighting up there again but on the other hand a bit frustrating because I think we could have had a seventh.
It’s not the best finish but I really feel we have made a step forward here and my team is working great.
As long as we can keep working like this I’m really looking forward to the next few races.
”Toni Elias – San Carlo Honda Gresini – 10th: “I’m sure that was a fun race for the fans to watch with the pit stops and bike changes but it was a tough one for us! I got a good start in the wet but I didn’t feel too comfortable in those conditions so I was lucky that it dried out.
We did a good job changing bikes and I think I was one of the fastest, if not the fastest, to change.
It took us a while to get the slick tyre up to temperature and the first four or five laps were really tricky but then I got into my rhythm, even though I was struggling a lot with the lack of power in my arm.
I had to fight really hard to hold off the challenge of De Angelis and Hayden – I thought they might get the better of me but in the end they didn’t! In my current physical state I couldn’t have hoped for a much better result than this but we have to kick on and improve from here.
In Mugello I’ll be much better and in the right shape for what we hope will be a turning point for us.
”Alex De Angelis – San Carlo Honda Gresini -11th: “After struggling to find a set-up here all weekend we went for something radically different in the race today and overall it was pretty good.
I struggled a little bit when it was wet at the beginning of the race and then when we changed to slicks I had a few big moments and almost crashed.
I was taking a lot of risks to keep my pace up and then when we got more heat into the tyre I was able to set a good pace.
Basically the race ended up to be better than I was expecting but we can still do much better than this so that is the target for the next race at Mugello.
”Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – 12th: “The conditions were tricky and sometimes you have races that aren’t exactly what you’ve planned.
It’s actually good fun on the grid making late decisions on set-up and tyres and things, with the track being wet but the sun shining.
I got a decent start and even though I’ve had very little time on this bike in the rain my feeling was pretty good and I was able to move up a few spots.
We came in and changed to slick tyre but with the track temperatures being so low it was hard to get any heat into the tyres, especially on the left side now that we don’t have dual compound rubber anymore.
I was actually as high as eight at one point but I got unlucky again when Kallio crashed and his bike slid into me.
I was lucky to save it because the impact was hard – you can see the rubber on the side of my bike – and I ran off track.
It cost me time and positions and also damaged the front wheel sensor.
We have two so the bike was working as well but probably it didn’t help things.
Overall it’s not a great result but it has been a weekend where me and Juan have been able to work a lot together for the first time, we’ve tried to build an understanding and hopefully we can go forward from here.
” Yuki Takahashi – Scot Honda – 13th: “This was my first time competing in a race like that, with bike changes.
The conditions were tricky, so it was a difficult GP.
My start in the wet conditions wasn’t great but once I got into a rhythm I was able to overtake a few rivals.
In the second part of the race, after I had changed to my other bike with slick tyres, my feeling with the bike was worse.
That made it quite difficult to stay concentrated.
”Randy DePuniet – LCR Racing – 14th:“I am very disappointed for the Team and for the fans because I made a very bad race today.
At the beginning, on rain tyres, I was not comfortable with the front end.
Then I switched on the bike set up with slick tyres but I made a mistake on turn no.
4 loosing some seconds.
After that I struggled I lot and could not race as I expected.
We started the week end with the right package and I aimed to get a better result.
However I got two points and I am 10th in the standing.
Now I have to forget this bad week end and must focus for Mugello race”.
Niccolò Canepa – Pramac Racing – 15th :”A strange race.
I lost a lot of time after changing bike.
I took too much time to get the rhythm.
Then, in the last five or six laps of the race, I was riding really well and this gives me a lot of trust for the next race at Mugello.
Finally a track that I know well and where I will try not only to continue to drop my distance from the firsts riders but also my position in the standing.
”Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha – 16th +2 Laps:“I had difficulties from the start today and I really could not ride my bike to its best.
Already by the fourth lap I felt that I was quite slow and that I couldn’t ride as I wanted.
I decided to change bikes early because usually this strategy – being among the first to change the bike – pays off.
Of course I knew that I had to warm the tyres up a little bit but I crashed anyway in that corner because at that point the track was still wet and I just didn’t ride into it in a calm enough manner.
Luckily I was able to make it back to the pits and I changed again, but the rule says that if you change the bike again then you have to use one wet tyre, and so this is what we did.
When I started that time, the pit-limiter on my bike was not on and so I was given a ride-through for speeding, but by that time it was too late for our race anyway.
We’ve had problems throughout the entire weekend with the set-up of the bike and today I was just hoping that I could stay with the riders in front and get some important points for the championship.
Now we go to Mugello, my home GP, where I will perhaps be even more motivated than usual!”Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing – DNF :”We were doing really well today.
I chose the right moment to change bike and I was in a good position.
I reached Hayden and I tried to overtake him in the inside.
All of a sudden he changed line and I was obligated to pass outside where there was a wet spot on the track and I slipped.
Probably he didn’t see me.
I am very sad about today because I was feeling really well.
”
