Valentino Rossi – Race Winner
`I knew today would be very difficult with Casey (Stoner) so strong, and his first lap was impressive. I lost a bit of time with John (Hopkins) in the first corner, because he overtook me. This time we had the pace with Stoner, and I was catching up with him. I knew my setting and tyres were working well. I think I could possibly have beaten him in a battle. Unfortunately he crashed, and then I was ahead with a 11 second lead. If he hadn´t have crashed then things would have been tougher, for sure.´
Toni Elias – Second Placed
`It has been a difficult season until now. The situation changed at Sachsenring with some new parts. At Laguna Seca I made a mistake, but I knew that it would be possible to podium here. Yesterday was really difficult, and so I started from back on the grid here. I passed many riders and the last seven laps I was comfortable with my pace.´
Loris Capirossi – Third Placed
`I´m really happy. After Barcelona I have not had the right condition for riding well. Three weeks off in the summer break, and now I am fit. The podium is amazing for all the team, not just me. A new season for me starts tomorrow -I'm trying the new bike in the test here.´
Selasa, 19 Agustus 2008
Pressure pays off for Rossi in Brno
Valentino Rossi once again benefitted from Casey Stoner´s misfortune for a second consecutive MotoGP victory, crossing the finish line first at the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky. The Fiat Yamaha rider´s win –coupled with an early crash from his title rival- increased his lead to 50 points in the standings and dealt a crucial strike to his World Championship chances.
Stoner was caught by surprise on the sixth lap when out at the front. He had over a second of advantage over Rossi after taking the holeshot, but slipped his front wheel out on the new Brno asphalt and was lowsided into the gravel. It was Stoner´s first DNF since his joining the Ducati Marlboro team for the 2007 season.
Ducati were, however, represented on the podium in the Czech Republic, courtesy of Alice Team rider Toni Elias. The Spaniard had experienced problems on the sighting lap –a sign that did not bode well for his race- but burst through the 800cc stars ahead of him from thirteenth on the grid. His second place marks the first podium for both he and his satellite team in 2008, and he became only the second satellite rider to step onto the rostrum this year.
Another podium first came from Loris Capirossi, as the veteran made his maiden appearance on the rostrum for Rizla Suzuki. The Italian had taken off from the end of the third row, but showed that there was still life in his MotoGP career by making Suzuki the fourth manufacturer with which he had taken a top three finish in the premier class.
Shinya Nakano paid back Honda for their decision to supply him with a factory spec RC212V for the remainder of the season, giving an immediate return with fourth place for San Carlo Honda Gresini. The Japanese rider was the highest placing rider for the manufacturer, with Michelin-shod factory man Dani Pedrosa way down in fifteenth place.
Riding for his future in MotoGP, Anthony West had the best result of his premier class career onboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR. The Australian came home fifth after a superb ride, holding off fellow countryman Chris Vermeulen.
Marco Melandri finished seventh in a race that will do much to aid his cause, whilst the top ten was completed by Alex de Angelis, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo. The latter two were the only Michelin riders amongst the first ten past the line.
Stoner was caught by surprise on the sixth lap when out at the front. He had over a second of advantage over Rossi after taking the holeshot, but slipped his front wheel out on the new Brno asphalt and was lowsided into the gravel. It was Stoner´s first DNF since his joining the Ducati Marlboro team for the 2007 season.
Ducati were, however, represented on the podium in the Czech Republic, courtesy of Alice Team rider Toni Elias. The Spaniard had experienced problems on the sighting lap –a sign that did not bode well for his race- but burst through the 800cc stars ahead of him from thirteenth on the grid. His second place marks the first podium for both he and his satellite team in 2008, and he became only the second satellite rider to step onto the rostrum this year.
Another podium first came from Loris Capirossi, as the veteran made his maiden appearance on the rostrum for Rizla Suzuki. The Italian had taken off from the end of the third row, but showed that there was still life in his MotoGP career by making Suzuki the fourth manufacturer with which he had taken a top three finish in the premier class.
Shinya Nakano paid back Honda for their decision to supply him with a factory spec RC212V for the remainder of the season, giving an immediate return with fourth place for San Carlo Honda Gresini. The Japanese rider was the highest placing rider for the manufacturer, with Michelin-shod factory man Dani Pedrosa way down in fifteenth place.
Riding for his future in MotoGP, Anthony West had the best result of his premier class career onboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR. The Australian came home fifth after a superb ride, holding off fellow countryman Chris Vermeulen.
Marco Melandri finished seventh in a race that will do much to aid his cause, whilst the top ten was completed by Alex de Angelis, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo. The latter two were the only Michelin riders amongst the first ten past the line.
Pedrosa: `Disastrous tyres have made me embarrassed´
In statements likely to reverberate around the MotoGP paddock for a long time to come, Dani Pedrosa sensationally slammed tyre manufacturer Michelin for their efforts in the Czech Republic.
The French fabricants had brought a wide range of compounds to Brno in order to avoid a repeat of their Laguna Seca whitewash, none were suitable for Pedrosa to push for the top positions. For him, such an error was unforgiveable, and he let rip with a tirade in the immediate aftermath of his fifteenth place finish.
`I would say that this was the most difficult race of my career. I did all that I could from the start, and was close to crashing on three or four occasions. From then on I had to settle for finishing the race,´ said the Spaniard, in need of a good result after two consecutive DNFs.
`I´m embarrassed –I don´t think I´ve ever been so embarrassed- because of the feeling of impotence that I had on the bike… the tyres didn´t work well at any point in the weekend, which has been a disaster.´
So disappointed was the 2007 World Championship runner-up with the events that he also contemplated aloud the possibility of skipping the scheduled two-day Honda test that begins on Monday.
`Things are very clear; I was going very, very slow and despite that I still only had half the tyre at the end. It is even difficult to think about how to prepare a practice schedule for Monday. With these conditions, we won´t prepare anything in the test.´
With this in mind, and just one point from the past three races, the MotoGP title is moving ever-further away from Pedrosa. 76 points separate him and leader Valentino Rossi –a margin that will be hard to recover with just six races remaining.
`It´s bad for the title as well. We obviously knew that it was going to be difficult, but now it´s practically impossible. Above all, the worst thing to come out of this race is the feeling of powerlessness that one feels when putting up with these things.´
The French fabricants had brought a wide range of compounds to Brno in order to avoid a repeat of their Laguna Seca whitewash, none were suitable for Pedrosa to push for the top positions. For him, such an error was unforgiveable, and he let rip with a tirade in the immediate aftermath of his fifteenth place finish.
`I would say that this was the most difficult race of my career. I did all that I could from the start, and was close to crashing on three or four occasions. From then on I had to settle for finishing the race,´ said the Spaniard, in need of a good result after two consecutive DNFs.
`I´m embarrassed –I don´t think I´ve ever been so embarrassed- because of the feeling of impotence that I had on the bike… the tyres didn´t work well at any point in the weekend, which has been a disaster.´
So disappointed was the 2007 World Championship runner-up with the events that he also contemplated aloud the possibility of skipping the scheduled two-day Honda test that begins on Monday.
`Things are very clear; I was going very, very slow and despite that I still only had half the tyre at the end. It is even difficult to think about how to prepare a practice schedule for Monday. With these conditions, we won´t prepare anything in the test.´
With this in mind, and just one point from the past three races, the MotoGP title is moving ever-further away from Pedrosa. 76 points separate him and leader Valentino Rossi –a margin that will be hard to recover with just six races remaining.
`It´s bad for the title as well. We obviously knew that it was going to be difficult, but now it´s practically impossible. Above all, the worst thing to come out of this race is the feeling of powerlessness that one feels when putting up with these things.´
Suffering Stoner sends the doctor away for Brno pole
Despite feeling less than 100% with a fever, there was no stopping Casey Stoner from taking a sixth successive pole position for the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky, as the Australian imposed his will on his rivals in a wet qualifying session.
Stoner recorded a fastest time of 2´11.657 in the soaking session, giving him the longest pole streak since fellow countryman Mick Doohan´s twelve-in-a-row from 1997. In doing so, he relegated MotoGP´s self-styled `Doctor´ -World Championship leader Valentino Rossi- down to second on the grid.
Rossi was suffering his own ailment on Saturday, with an ear and sinus infection posing him problems. Even with their respective medical woes, both Stoner and Rossi can be expected to battle against each other once more in Brno when the red light goes out on Sunday.
The front row will be completed by last year´s runner-up at Brno, Kawasaki´s John Hopkins, as the Anglo-American lines up for his first MotoGP race since the June visit to Donington Park. A first front row for `Team Green´ marked an ideal return for Hopkins, who will be out for a maiden podium to salvage something from his 2008 campaign.
Out to stop him is former teammate Chris Vermeulen, the Rizla Suzuki rider who heads the second row. Vermeulen has been on the rostrum at the last two races, and conditions were favourable for the wet weather specialist to classify himself ahead of Alex de Angelis and Anthony West –the remaining duo on the second line as both had their best qualifying sessions of the year.
Randy De Puniet ran off track after recording his fastest time of the qualifying period, and elected against another attempt at bettering his marker. His LCR Honda bike fell in the gravel as it came to the end of its trajectory, with some minor repairs made as the Frenchman returned to the garage. De Puniet was the highest placing Michelin rider in seventh, and the only non-Bridgestone representative in the top ten.
San Carlo Honda Gresini´s Shinya Nakano was getting used to the factory spec RC212V that he will race for the first time, a task made more difficult by the drenched track. He starts from row three, a line concluded by Loris Capirossi, who ran off in the early going.
Crashing at the midway point of the session was Tech 3 Yamaha´s James Toseland, who avoided lowsiding his M1 but was unable to avoid a tumble.
Stoner recorded a fastest time of 2´11.657 in the soaking session, giving him the longest pole streak since fellow countryman Mick Doohan´s twelve-in-a-row from 1997. In doing so, he relegated MotoGP´s self-styled `Doctor´ -World Championship leader Valentino Rossi- down to second on the grid.
Rossi was suffering his own ailment on Saturday, with an ear and sinus infection posing him problems. Even with their respective medical woes, both Stoner and Rossi can be expected to battle against each other once more in Brno when the red light goes out on Sunday.
The front row will be completed by last year´s runner-up at Brno, Kawasaki´s John Hopkins, as the Anglo-American lines up for his first MotoGP race since the June visit to Donington Park. A first front row for `Team Green´ marked an ideal return for Hopkins, who will be out for a maiden podium to salvage something from his 2008 campaign.
Out to stop him is former teammate Chris Vermeulen, the Rizla Suzuki rider who heads the second row. Vermeulen has been on the rostrum at the last two races, and conditions were favourable for the wet weather specialist to classify himself ahead of Alex de Angelis and Anthony West –the remaining duo on the second line as both had their best qualifying sessions of the year.
Randy De Puniet ran off track after recording his fastest time of the qualifying period, and elected against another attempt at bettering his marker. His LCR Honda bike fell in the gravel as it came to the end of its trajectory, with some minor repairs made as the Frenchman returned to the garage. De Puniet was the highest placing Michelin rider in seventh, and the only non-Bridgestone representative in the top ten.
San Carlo Honda Gresini´s Shinya Nakano was getting used to the factory spec RC212V that he will race for the first time, a task made more difficult by the drenched track. He starts from row three, a line concluded by Loris Capirossi, who ran off in the early going.
Crashing at the midway point of the session was Tech 3 Yamaha´s James Toseland, who avoided lowsiding his M1 but was unable to avoid a tumble.
Tech 3 Yamaha hoping for Michelin improvement
James Toseland - Thirteenth
`It was a difficult race and the result is clearly not where we want to be. I don´t want to be fighting at the back of the top 15, and neither does my team or Yamaha and it is disappointing. All I can do is go out there with whatever I have got underneath me and give it my maximum and I did that. But this team and Yamaha deserve to be higher up and today wasn´t good enough. It would be easy to let my head drop but I have never been that type of rider and I am not going to start now. I was reasonably happy with my start but I had a few moments with the front tyre on the first couple of laps and I soon realised that I was at my maximum and that I wasn´t going to be able to do much more. It is disappointing because I have slipped out of the top ten in the standings and that was one of my big goals before the start of the season. We have got to keep working hard as a team and hope that Michelin can quickly turn it around for the rest of the season so we can try and get back into that top ten and keep the morale up of the team. Colin had even had more problems than me so it must have been tough for him, but this is the situation we are in. We will all keep pushing hard and see what we can do.´
Colin Edwards - Fourteenth
`I could see straightaway behind James that he was having some issues with the front tyre, which we expected. I still thought I could put a good pace together but it never happened. I just didn´t have the confidence I needed to push harder with the tyres and the more I pushed I didn´t seem to go much faster. James was able to leave me pretty easily as my issues started to get worse but I wanted to stay out there and try my best for my guys at Tech 3 and Yamaha, who as always have been working like crazy to help me this weekend. I thank them for that, but there was nothing else I could do. Towards the end I just decided to take a few more risks and I went a bit quicker, but there was no way I was going to catch anybody. I´ve had a bad run lately but I´m still in contention for fourth in the championship, and I´ll keep fighting. But we need big improvements from Michelin. The good start we had to the season seems like a long way away now, and we have to work with Michelin to try and solve some of the issues because I didn't enjoy today at all.´
`It was a difficult race and the result is clearly not where we want to be. I don´t want to be fighting at the back of the top 15, and neither does my team or Yamaha and it is disappointing. All I can do is go out there with whatever I have got underneath me and give it my maximum and I did that. But this team and Yamaha deserve to be higher up and today wasn´t good enough. It would be easy to let my head drop but I have never been that type of rider and I am not going to start now. I was reasonably happy with my start but I had a few moments with the front tyre on the first couple of laps and I soon realised that I was at my maximum and that I wasn´t going to be able to do much more. It is disappointing because I have slipped out of the top ten in the standings and that was one of my big goals before the start of the season. We have got to keep working hard as a team and hope that Michelin can quickly turn it around for the rest of the season so we can try and get back into that top ten and keep the morale up of the team. Colin had even had more problems than me so it must have been tough for him, but this is the situation we are in. We will all keep pushing hard and see what we can do.´
Colin Edwards - Fourteenth
`I could see straightaway behind James that he was having some issues with the front tyre, which we expected. I still thought I could put a good pace together but it never happened. I just didn´t have the confidence I needed to push harder with the tyres and the more I pushed I didn´t seem to go much faster. James was able to leave me pretty easily as my issues started to get worse but I wanted to stay out there and try my best for my guys at Tech 3 and Yamaha, who as always have been working like crazy to help me this weekend. I thank them for that, but there was nothing else I could do. Towards the end I just decided to take a few more risks and I went a bit quicker, but there was no way I was going to catch anybody. I´ve had a bad run lately but I´m still in contention for fourth in the championship, and I´ll keep fighting. But we need big improvements from Michelin. The good start we had to the season seems like a long way away now, and we have to work with Michelin to try and solve some of the issues because I didn't enjoy today at all.´
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)
