The asphalt and Bridgestone’s tire management especially with the graining on the front tire and not going off the racing line will be the name of the game in today’s MotoGP race at Indianapolis if anyone wants to stay even close to pole man Casey Stoner.
Here’s what all the rider’s had to say after yesterday’s impressive qualifying session.
Casey Stoner – 1st “I’m very happy with Pole here in Indy, the team have been doing a great job under difficult conditions this weekend, but the race is tomorrow and we will keep working right up until the last moment to try and get the set up right.
Obviously without the bumps from previous years the track is performing a lot better, but the lack of consistency in the grip levels are causing issues, everyone is loosing the front and it doesn’t give you a lot of confidence, when you hit these patches the bike just seems to drop away from you.
We haven’t changed too much since FP1, just a few small steps and trying to get the front tyre to work more as with such little grip, we are destroying it.
For race distance we’re looking pretty good, we did more than race distance on soft front and soft rear and had good stability, we’ll wait and see what the conditions are like for tomorrow and decide from there”.
Ben Spies – 2nd“It was good today, we didn’t have a fast lap in the end but we got on the front row.
We did over 30 laps on a set of tyres and went quite quick at the end, still able to do 39s which is good.
The last couple of laps we tried our hardest to catch Casey but with five minutes to go I think I ripped my tank spacer off that holds me back on the bike which didn’t help.
I wasn’t disappointed as I knew we had a gap to fourth so we’d be on the front row.
It wasn’t the perfect session and Casey was just too fast.
I think the race will be different; the tyres will be pretty greasy after ten laps but my bike’s working really well on used tyres so we’ll see what happens.
”Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd“Qualifying was much better than the other three practices so far this weekend.
I improved a lot and had a lot more confidence with the front, we changed one bike completely which worked.
We are much more confident for tomorrow now.
I would like to be closer to Casey, but seven tenths is better than one second and a half.
It’s going to be a very tough race for everybody.
The front tyre, especially on the left side is graining from the fourth lap so it’s going to be a complicated ride.
Let’s see what happens.
”Dani Pedrosa – 4th“We had some issues in the session with the front tyre, I didn’t feel very comfortable with it and we couldn’t get the most from it.
I was not going super fast and I lost the first row, but I’m not worried about the position.
We would like to be closer to Casey and Ben – they have been very fast and consistent, so I hope to find something more tomorrow morning in the warm up to help us fight for the podium.
The race will be hard because it’s very hot out there, and it will also be a big challenge for the tyres, but I hope we perform better in the race”.
Andrea Dovizioso – 5th“Starting from the second row tomorrow is not too bad.
It will be important to have a good start and ride consistently, trying to manage the tyres for the twenty eight lap race.
The rear grip is too strong compared with the front which causes the front tyre to overheat, this remains the main issue so we need to continue working with the set up to rectify this.
During qualifying the ground temperature reached fifty one degrees, these conditions are really demanding for the tyres.
Concerning the pace, I have good rhythm and even though the gap to Casey remains too big for my liking, I think we can fight with Dani and Lorenzo for a podium position, this is our target and we will continue working to improve the machine for the race”.
Colin Edwards – 6th“The weekend has been great so far and now I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.
I haven’t been out of the top six in every session and everything has been working fantastic.
I feel great on the bike, my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team have been working tirelessly again to give me a competitive package, and I’m sure a realistic goal is to finish in the top six.
That would be a great result and I’m hoping to put on a good show for the Indy crowd tomorrow.
The new pavement was a million times better today.
Yesterday it was greasy and I was sliding around all over the place, but to finish third in that first practice session gave me a lot of confidence immediately and we have just built on that.
The bike has felt the best it has for a few races and now I’m excited for the race.
I need a good start but I’ll be looking to have a good fight with Dovizioso and Simoncelli.
In this heat it is going to be a long and tough race, but I’ll be giving it my all for the American fans.
”Marco Simoncelli – 7th“Obviously I was hoping to do better than this because things weren’t going too badly or us in the first half of qualifying.
I was optimistic because my pace on race tyres was good but when we put a new rear in to chase a faster lap time the front was completely destroyed within a couple of laps and I couldn’t push the bike as I wanted to.
Now we will have a look at the data and do some work for the race to and find a solution that will save on front tyre wear.
As I said I am still optimistic about my race pace and even though a podium will be difficult and even more so the win, we have a good chance of improving on our starting position.
”Nicky Hayden – 8th“Compared to yesterday, we had wanted to take a step forward in qualifying, but I got a bit confused this morning, and my feedback to the team wasn’t as good as it should have been.
This bike is new for us, and we still need more experience with it.
Anyway, we still salvaged the third row in the end, which is better than I was.
Tyre wear is going to be a big question mark for me.
I’m sorry for my fans and the Ducati supporters who want to see us qualifying up front, but we’ll give it our best tomorrow.
They say there may be cooler weather, which normally helps us a little bit, so maybe we’ll catch a break.
” Alvaro Bautista – 9th“The qualifying today was not too bad compared with the last few races, so this is a lot better for us.
We tried a long run at the start of the session and the grip from the rear was no problem, but the front did not have enough life in it to make a full race length.
This will make things difficult for tomorrow, because we have to try and preserve the front tyre and make sure we have enough durability for 28-laps.
We are starting from the third row so the main thing will be to get a good start and stay with the front guys.
We will look at today’s data to see if we can use a setting that will give us more life in the tyre and stop it dropping off and sliding around.
I am looking forward to tomorrow because we have a better grid position and I will give it full gas and 100% to get a good result.
”Héctor Barberá – 10th“We have a really good set-up now and that helped us get on the pace today.
What is worrying me is that the tyres are completely destroyed after ten laps, especially the front.
The rear tyre is a pretty obvious choice; it is just the front we need to decide so we’ll work on that in the warm-up.
We did a good job today and made more progress but I still think we have room for improvement and need to keep pushing.
I had fun on the bike though and we have improved a lot from the morning to the afternoon so we’ll keep going in the same way from here.
” Cal Crutchlow – 11th“I’m pretty disappointed…I had to swerve really quick to avoid hitting a rider and that is disappointing.
I’m not saying I was going to jump into the top five, but I’m sure without that I might have qualified inside the top ten.
That would have been a good result because I’m struggling with the front end again.
I keep losing the front and it is proving quite difficult at the moment to find an improvement.
I’m working really hard, and so are my guys, to find a solution.
But we haven’t quite made me as comfortable on the bike as I’d like.
My pace is still not that bad and I’m sure I can be fighting in a group with Nicky and Alvaro tomorrow.
If I can get a good start, I’m hopeful I can stay with them and have a good scrap.
”Randy De Puniet –12th “The first exit from the pits this afternoon went very well although we had a rear tire with almost twenty laps and after thirty laps I recorded my best lap.
Then in the final try, with new tires, we were able to improve by only a few tenths of a second, and this just is not right.
I expected more, but we often have difficulties with new tires.
I gave everything I had, tomorrow we will have to improve the bike, especially in long-distance curves.
Our race pace is good, we aim to enter the top ten!”Hiroshi Aoyama – 13th“My feeling was a little better today but not enough to make up positions.
We start from near the back again and that presents its own problems but my race pace is not too bad so I am looking forward to tomorrow.
”Valentino Rossi – 14th“We took a nice step forward this morning that we hoped to confirm in qualifying, and instead I fell right away.
We really could have done without that crash, but the front closed right when I touched the brake.
From there, the whole session was difficult because the second bike had a slightly different setup.
I lost one pair of new tyres and I had to start with a set of used ones.
I wasn’t able to get back the feeling from this morning, when the bike felt better and I could push harder.
It’s really a shame because we wanted to try to start from the second row again, like at Brno, and instead we’ll have to work hard tomorrow.
Anyway, we’ll give our best effort in the race because we weren’t so far off this morning.
” Toni Elias – 15th“Already from yesterdays afternoon session and this morning we knew which are going to be our front and rear tyres for the race.
It seems we had less issues with front tyre compared with the other riders especially about the wear.
In this afternoon session we have tested two different bike set ups: one was better in turning and the other one had a better stability so we have been trying to understand which was the best one for tomorrow.
In my last run I had a big issues with the new rear tyre that was pushing too much in the front and I struggled to control the bike.
We will work on that in the warm up tomorrow to get a better feeling.
At the end I had not taken a painkiller injection as my right feet is improving day by day”.
Karel Abraham – 16thOf course we could do better, but I’m glad that I didn’t lose too much time to the riders in front of me.
We had problems with the set-up of the motorcycle.
Grip of the tyres on the new surface was improving in every lap and the conditions on the track were very variable.
We will make some changes in the warm-up and then we will see.
Loris Capirossi –17th “I’m disappointed, the team worked very well and the bike was ready.
But I was not able to exploit the soft rubber as I should and I was relegated to the rear of the classification.
It would take only three tenths less and we were almost in top ten, but this is not enough.
We had a good start to the afternoon session but the last few laps we have not just exploited as we should.
We hope to redeem in the race tomorrow, even if the shoulder pain is strong and I hope it will not cause me complications in the final part of the race.
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