What everyone had to say after last night’s Qatar season opener:Casey Stoner – Malboro Ducati – 1st“I’m so pleased with this victory because it is fruit of the hard work done by everybody at Ducati over the winter.
It has been difficult to work in such short sessions here this weekend and going into the race last night we took a gamble with a setting change that we weren’t sure about, but we got the opportunity to try it in warm-up and it felt great, so thank you to the team that worked really hard during the whole week-end.
That gave me more confidence ahead of the race.
“We knew this circuit is demanding for fuel consumption and I had to adapt my style a little to keep the pace up and hold the advantage over Valentino but finally we didn’t have problems at all with it.
My wrist felt 100% tonight but I still need to work on my overall fitness after the down time over the winter and I’m sure we can keep progressing.
”“Everyone is on the same tyres now so you don’t hear any more things about ‘his tyres are better than mine’, The grip is not the best at this track and the bike was moving around a little, but maybe from my dirt-track days I feel more comfortable than maybe other riders do like this.
We are all on the same tyres so it is a good feeling to win the first race like this.
”Nicky Hayden – Malboro Ducati -12th“It’s been a tough weekend and we’ve had a lot of issues – obviously a 130mph high-side doesn’t help things but nothing really went smooth.
In the beginning of the race I was quite slow, I didn’t get a great start but actually as the fuel load changed and I got a better feeling I got faster and faster and the last five or six laps were my fastest of the whole weekend.
It would have been nice to nick Dani at the end there but I think the team have showed that even though a lot of stuff has gone against us this weekend we’re not going to give up.
Hopefully the bad stuff is behind us now and Casey has shown the potential of the bike, so crazy as it sounds I’m leaving here in a really positive mood and looking forward to Motegi.
”Valentino Rossi – FIAT Yamaha – 2nd“Today the conditions of the track were quite different to before and this evening in warm-up we encountered a couple of small problems related to tyres, so our strategy had to change slightly tonight.
It’s a pity because I think last night we could have put up more of a fight, but anyway this is a good result to start the season, much better than last year.
“I knew I needed a good start in order to go with Stoner but unfortunately I didn’t get one and I lost some time fighting with Lorenzo and Capirossi and by then Stoner had already gone! “The middle part of the race was great fun and I made six or seven good laps to come much closer, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to continue in that rhythm, it was too risky for the tyres and I decided it was more important to take the 20 points.
”Jorge Lorenzo – FIAT Yamaha – 3rd“I am so happy to be on the podium tonight, I really enjoyed some parts of the race when I made some good overtakes and felt confident enough to take some risks.
The grip of the track was better tonight but my rear tyre was moving from the start, so this is something we need to address and improve.
”“Apart from the result and the points it is clear we have some work to do because our pace tonight was too far off Rossi and especially Stoner.
The gap is too big! After yesterday’s crazy weather I am really happy we could race, it was very important for everyone and now we have got the season underway with a good result, my aim is to be much closer to the leaders in Motegi.
”Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 4th“That was a good start to the season after I made a rubbish start to the race .
I thought I’d got a good start but the next thing I know is everybody flying by me.
I was way down and it cost me the chance to fight for the podium really.
I’m not saying I could have run with Jorge because he was riding really well, but it would have been nice to give myself a shot.
“The track conditions were good considering the rain we had last night and I just concentrated on being smooth and not abusing the tyre too much and it paid off because when I caught Dovizioso I could see he was having some issues.
By the time I passed him for fourth, Jorge was long gone and it was going to take a massive mistake from him for me to get close to Jorge but I kept pushing.
I’d like to think I could have kept the pace with Jorge if I’d got a good start, but it’s easy to say that after the race.
”James Toseland – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 16th“It has been a difficult weekend to say the least and I know we have got a long way to catch up.
This race was almost like a test for me, and like in testing, I didn’t have a lot of luck out there.
I felt like I could fight for the top ten but Toni Elias came up the inside of me at the final corner as I was closing on Randy de Puniet and Mika Kallio.
He touched me and I went off into the gravel and that left me out of the points unfortunately.
“We tried a different front-end setting for the race to try and solve some stability issues I’ve been having, and there is plenty of room for improvement.
I just need time on the bike and a bit of luck to go my way.
”Andrea Dovizioso – Resol Honda -5th“I didn’t start well but I was able to overtake some riders and get into third position.
During the first three laps the machine was performing really well – as it had during practice – and I tried to keep in contact with Valentino, but then I started struggling with the front.
It was folding entering the corners and, later, also mid-corner, so I couldn’t turn as I would have liked.
I had to slow down and compensate by turning with the rear tyre.
We never had this issue during practice or the pre-season tests, so we need to understand what happened and do some more work to adapt the machine to the tyres.
It was a very hard fight today, and I’m satisfied that we learned a lot here in practice and during the race.
Now we’ll analyze the data and work hard for the next one in Japan.
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Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda – 11th“Overall I’m happy because of my progress over the weekend.
I improved in every session and I’m glad to have come here and scored five points – though I’m also slightly disappointed because it could even have been ten or eleven.
I got a good start and the race was going very well at the beginning.
After seven or eight laps, though, I had started to get some vibration with the front wheel which became more severe as the race progressed.
I started to lose grip at the front and my lap times suffered, so we’ll have to check what the issue was.
I also suffered a lot physically in the race, and de Angelis gave me a big hit mid-race.
The collision was avoidable I think because he could have passed me cleanly.
My knee was giving me a lot of pain by the end and my left arm was pretty tired too.
Still, we came away having completed the race and with a few points, which was our target, so I’m happy.
”Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing – 8th “Before coming here I thought that if I would have finished in the top ten I would have been satisfied: the eight position is therefore a really good result.
I didn’t manage to start in the best way, but I have maintained a good rhythm.
I tried to catch the group in front of me, but after a few laps I thought to keep my rhythm and this strategy paid off.
In the last laps I was seeing Vermeulen closer and closer and I think that if I would have had a couple of more laps I could have pass him.
Anyway in general we had a positive weekend and we will try to continue on this direction in the next appointment in Japan.
”Niccolò Canepa – Pramac Racing rider – 17th “I hoped to do better to be honest, but it has been a difficult weekend since the first session and we couldn’t expect a miracle for the race.
In the last laps I made it to stay with Toseland and I learnt many things.
We will try to improve our performances in Japan even if it will be the first time for me in Japan, but I will surely be more aggressive because it is what I need.
” Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki – not classified“ feel really sorry for the whole team, because all winter we have worked so hard and have gone quite well so this was hard to take.
It was really strange today because our practice has been good, but in this evening’s warm-up I had a big problem with chatter, this hadn’t happened all weekend and then during the race it was the same.
” “The front tyre didn’t work like normal either, I had done 25 to 30 laps on the same tyre with no problems and the feeling had always been good, but today after just five laps it felt like it was destroyed! This race is over now and we have to concentrate on the next one and find out why the things that happened today occurred”.
Chris Vermeulen – Rizla Suzuki – 7th“The track conditions were a bit different to what it had been all weekend and it was very different to the test which was how I had the bike set-up, and to be honest I really struggled for front-end feeling.
Towards the end of the race the rear tyre performance dropped off as well so that’s something we’ve really got to work on.
“It was not the result we wanted because we were hoping to be in the top-five.
We have got quite a bit of work to do to catch up to the podium so we need to put our thinking caps on and go to Motegi and have a better performance.
Alex De Angelis – San Carlo Honda Gresini – 6th“I’m so happy with this result because I think we deserve it after working so hard this weekend.
I didn’t get a great start but I knew my pace was okay so I just tried to stay calm, pass as many people as possible and make up positions.
We knew the podium was out of reach for us here but I always felt we were capable of a top result and sixth place falls into that category.
I was called up to Race Direction to put forward my version of the collision with Dani but there was no complaint against me so it wasn’t a big deal.
This is just the start and even though we know this circuit suits my style of riding and my package, our aim is to be consistent and keep scoring results like this oneToni Elias – San Carlo Honda Gresini – 9th“Taking into account where we started from and the problems we had this weekend, this is a decent result for us and I’m satisfied.
In terms of points it probably would have been better for us if the race was cancelled here because we knew it would be tough for us but the truth is that if you had offered me ninth place on Friday, I probably would have taken it! “We know we have work to do and we know exactly where our problems are, so we’ll work together with Honda to try and fix them as much as possible before the next race in Japan.
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