Jorge Lorenzo ruled the AirAsia British Grand Prix at Silverstone and here’s what the riders had to say after the exciting race.
You’ll also find the Riders Standing after five rounds and next Saturday (not Sunday) we’ve got Assen to look forward to.
Jorge Lorenzo Position: 1st “This was an important day for me and an important win, because I felt so strong and I enjoyed riding my Yamaha so much.
I had a different feeling today; I felt that it was going to be a good race.
It was quite hard to be fast at the start and the first lap with Dani was difficult, but once I got past him I felt very relaxed and comfortable.
I thought he would follow me for a bit longer but he didn’t and then I was on my own, so I just had to focus on myself; I didn’t even know who was behind me! I never dreamt of taking three wins from five races but here we are and I am feeling very strong mentally at this moment.
I want to thank my team, Yamaha and Bridgestone for this victory.
The Beatles celebration was something fun for the fans, I love their music and I thought it was nice to make a homage to them, since we’re in England!” Andrea Dovizioso: 2nd “I’m really happy with second in the race, and we also have second in the championship now so this reflects our strong start to the season.
In the middle of the race I saw many riders were closing in behind me and so I tried to push at 100 per cent to get a gap and try to avoid a fight on last lap.
Corners 13 and 14 towards the end of the lap are really slow and you can see clearly the riders that are behind, and also here it would be easy to be overtaken there on the last lap if they were too close, so it was important to get a gap, which I managed to do.
I’m so pleased with the season so far and I’d like to say thank you to Honda and to the team for the work they are doing.
We still need to improve so that we can battle for race wins, but we are one step closer today and it’s a good result for us at the start of a busy period of races.
Next stop is Assen and we must move forward again so that we have a chance of winning there.
”Ben Spies: 3rd “I didn’t expect to get my first podium so quickly, especially after yesterday which wasn’t the best for me.
I got a decent start but once I got by Dani and Simoncelli I just tried to stay on the back of the group battling for the podium.
Once I realised I could stay in contention I just tried to save the rear tyre as much as I could and it all worked out.
The last few laps I pushed as hard as I could and made some good passes and it is great for Yamaha and the Monster Tech 3 Team.
I’m also pretty happy about it too and this is good for my confidence.
That last lap was difficult to pass Nicky but I got a really good drive onto the back straight and tried to pass him at Stowe Corner but he came back by.
On the next straight I managed to get by him and then had to ride quite defensively on the last part of the lap.
I was on the edge but I had to go for the podium and it worked out.
It will be hard to duplicate this but right now I’ll let it sink in and make the most of it.
But on this day I can say I was the third best rider in the world and it is a good feeling.
” Nicky Hayden: 4th“It’s a pretty frustrating result because the team did a great job with the bike after the warm-up and it was a lot of fun to ride.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a good start – we’ve been having some little clutch problems and didn’t get away well.
The race was really fun, everybody was going back and forth, I was able to make some moves in the corners but just didn’t really have the top speed in the straights.
It’s hard for me to dress this result up because I’m not happy to finish fourth again but the good thing is we were in the hunt again.
We did something good with the bike today so hopefully it will work at Assen, a circuit I love.
” Casey Stoner: 5th“I’m not happy with fifth place because we were capable of more today.
I don’t know if we could have challenged Jorge for the win but we definitely found something in warm-up and made more improvements in the race, but we paid the price for a terrible start.
As I let the clutch out the bike started jumping and hopping around and I had to pull the clutch in and go again, by which time everybody was past.
The tyres were fresh on before the warm-up lap so in the early laps I had to be really careful before being able to start overtaking and I lost a lot of seconds.
The race then was fun, we were able to find a good rhythm and to make our way forward but the time lost at the beginning prevented us by fighting for the podium.
” Randy de Puniet: 6th“It was a good race and I had fun but, like in Mugello, I finished behind the leading group.
It’s a pity but I feel satisfied anyway.
I took a very good start from the front row and I could rely on my machine as we lapped consistently fast for the whole weekend.
With four laps to go the front started to move too much because we raced on front soft tyre [which was the right choice] but probably today’s ground temperature was a bit higher compared to the rest of the weekend.
We had a great race weekend and I am a big fan of this new circuit.
The guys gave me an incredible machine here and we can be pleased about this result as we battled for the podium.
In my opinion we moved a step forward in this week end and will do our best to keep the sixth position in the world classification.
”Marco Simoncelli : 7th “We have definitely taken another important step forward here.
I got a good start and stuck with the group fighting for the podium for the majority of the race.
I was able to run with Spies and close the gap right down but they were able to keep their pace to the end of the race whereas I struggled at the end as my tyres went off.
It was nice to have them in my sights until two laps from the end though and I feel like I have really improved.
I had fun today – hopefully next time it can be even closer to the front.
”Dani Pedrosa : 8th“Well, eighth is obviously a disappointing result because we were looking quite strong here yesterday and I was confident.
However, we were lacking some grip from the beginning of the race and we couldn’t replicate the pace we were able to achieve in practice.
The rear was spinning and sliding quite a lot and the front was pushing which meant that, even though I was pushing really hard, I wasn’t able to maintain my pace.
It was frustrating because I could see the riders in front and I could stay with them but it was impossible to fight for position.
The one positive thing from the weekend is that even though I had two crashes I wasn’t injured and I didn’t feel pain during the race today.
This means we can quickly put this weekend behind us and move on to the next races – the first one being Assen next weekend.
”Colin Edwards: 9th “I don’t want to be finishing in ninth at all but honestly I’m reasonably happy with the way I rode and it was a lot better than I expected after what has been a tough weekend.
I’m still a fair way behind the top group but I had so many problems this weekend that even a top ten was looking like a difficult result to achieve.
I didn’t leave anything out there and I went better than I did in qualifying but it was still not easy.
The bike isn’t agile enough and having to muscle it around gave me a small arm pump problem, but not as bad as Mugello.
If I could get the bike to go where I want it to go I could save lots of time, but we’ve got some ideas for the future.
It was a bit of a lonely race but I rode as hard as I could for as long as I could.
I want to congratulate Ben though because he did an awesome job and I’ve got nothing but admiration for him.
He showed today what a great rider he is and it is great for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team to be back on the podium.
” Aleix Espargarò: 10th“Bad start that has ruined my race.
I lost the middle group straight away and after overtaking three riders I basically ridden all alone for most of the race.
A bit boring.
Tenth position is anyway a good result and now we have to think to next weekend when we will be in Assen: it is one of my favorite circuits and I hope to be able to conquer a even better position.
”Héctor Barberá: 11th“The start that I got was pretty good compared to the last four races.
The goal on the first two laps was to keep with the group that was in front of me, stopping them from getting away.
The fact that I was able to do it was a sign that I have improved.
Later I spent a while behind Capirossi, and I saw that I had a better pace to him but was unable to get past him.
I didn’t have enough confidence in the brakes.
When I got through then Stoner got past us, so I decided to ride on my own.
It was hard to keep the pace up and I lost concentration, and with two bad laps I had Capirossi, Espargaró and Álvaro on my tail.
That was when I got back into things, with a similar pace to in the practice sessions.
I want to take away the positives from this race: I was more consistent and didn’t make a significant mistake.
The result isn’t great, but I hope to continue improving in Assen.
”Álvaro Bautista: 12th “For me the race seemed like my first free practice, because the conditions were different and I was able to start to ride like I wanted.
I didn’t have any reference points with the better conditions so I had to learn them in the race and it was quite difficult to do that.
I am quite happy because I think we have made one step forward with the bike in cold conditions and during the race I was able to ride consistently quicker than my best lap in qualifying.
Also my shoulder feels much better, it was a bit painful in the last few laps, but I am pleased with how I’m recovering.
Today has been the first day I’ve been able to push since my injury and I hope that for the next races I will get stronger physically and get more confidence on the bike.
”Mika Kallio: 13th“The situation compare to yesterday has sensibly improved, today we have at least made it to fight with some of the other riders.
It is clear that the thirteenth position isn’t our objective but as the weekend went we couldn’t expect for more.
We hope that the work done today it can become useful for next weekend.
Last year in Assen we were really competitive and I hope to result at least as competitive also this season.
”Loris Capirossi: DNF “I think that the whole weekend has been very tough for us, but today we did have better conditions and it gave me a better feeling on the bike.
My start was not too bad, but I still couldn’t ride as hard as I wanted and with seven laps to go I lost the front during braking, so I had to let off the brakes and I was going into the corner too fast and I crashed in the gravel.
It has been a bad weekend because we just couldn’t find what we were looking for to make us go quicker and get the grip we wanted.
I feel so sorry for the whole team and for all the people that came to support us because we just didn’t give a very good show at our home race.
Sometimes races are like this and you have to just keep going till it gets better!” Marco Melandri: DNF “I made a really good start but then made a mistake on the exit of a corner on cold tyres.
I was behind Spies and felt I was faster than him so I attacked two or three times but couldn’t get through.
Then I tried a pass on the inside but I hit a bump, lost the front and there was no way I could save it.
I’m disappointed because I wasn’t even pushing that hard, I was just waiting for Spies to give me a chance to pass him.
It’s a shame!”World Championship Standings (after 5 of 18 races):1.
Lorenzo, 115 points2.
Dovizioso, 783.
Pedrosa, 734.
Valentino Rossi, 615.
Hayden, 526.
De Puniet, 467.
Spies, 368.
Stoner, 359.
TIE, Melandri/Simoncelli, 3211.
Edwards, 2612.
Barbera, 2413.
Espargaro, 2214.
Aoyama, 1815.
Kallio, 1516.
Capirossi, 1317.
Bautista, 12
