MotoGP: Yamaha and Rossi sign for 2006

Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 10th place: “This hasn’t surely been a great race for me. The setting of the bike was a little better in comparison with this morning, but it still didn’t give me the right confidence to push my bike even more. It is a hard situation because it isn’t simple to understand with precision what doesn’t work. The race had a good rhythm, which before the red flag I could in part maintain. After, the tyres lost a bit of grip and I couldn’t keep going as I was doing before, but this doesn’t have to be an excuse for me. Now I hope that this vacation will help me to find back the best conditions to be ready for the next Grand Prix at the end of August in Brno.”

Kenny Roberts Jr, Team Suzuki, 11th place: “Today was about where I expected to finish in the dry. Basically that’s where we seem to be bike-wise right now. We still need help to get something a little bit more competitive inside the chassis. For me that’s just the way it is at the moment.”

Mr Masahito Imada, General Manager, Suzuki Racing Department: “I have now seen the team in action at the last two races and I understand what we have to do to make more advances with the Suzuki GSV-R. It was very good for Kenny to get on the podium last weekend and it showed that the bike can be competitive in the right conditions. This weekend John looked very fast until his Friday crash and then today was brave but very unlucky. I will now take all the information I have from the races and study it carefully back in Japan. I will see what steps we can take to make the bike a better machine and to strive for better results whatever the weather.”

Paul Denning, Team Suzuki Team Manager: “We started the weekend in high spirits and with big hopes for a decent result – wet or dry. John confirmed on Friday that he was amongst the quickest riders and should have been able to build from there. But unfortunately Friday afternoon’s huge accident put paid to that. His injuries to his foot meant that the flexibility wasn’t there and caused him to knock the bike into the wrong gear in the middle of a corner. That led to a massive high-side that everybody saw, the great news is that he’ll be back Brno, and I think he is relieved to be leaving Sachsenring under his own steam. Kenny also turned in some decent lap-times during practice but we didn’t have the durability – as a mixture of what the bike and tyre package needed – for Kenny to be comfortable after the first third of the race.

“There is a lot to achieve during the summer break and the Factory will be working hard to continue development in the same direction. I think Bridgestone will have learnt valuable lessons this weekend, and a lot of positives from the performance of Shinya Nakano and the speed displayed during the practice sessions by all the Bridgestone racers.”

Toni Elias (Fortuna Yamaha Team) 12th: “I can’t be happy because it was a very difficult weekend and the circuit here really accentuated the injury problems I have had recently. We worked very hard all weekend, though, and this morning we made a big change to the bike which was positive but not quite effective enough. We have a good base now to work from at Brno and I am sure I can improve there. In the end I had an injection before the race and up until the final ten laps, when the effect wore off, I didn’t feel any pain. Of course I would have liked to have finished higher up, but the important thing is to keep scoring points and improving from race to race. The holidays have come just at the right time for me to recover properly from my injury and improve my fitness levels.”

Ruben Xaus (Fortuna Yamaha Team) 13th: “This morning we were a lot closer to the pace, but in the race we started a long way down because of our qualifying time. I was lucky not to get caught up in the crash on the first lap which saw Troy Bayliss (Honda) forced out. After the restart I rode the bike well and believe I learned quite a lot about the concept of how you need to ride a Yamaha. What I must do now is work on how to set up the bike. I am going to Andorra during the holidays to prepare for Brno and think that will be the last race of adaptation before I can really begin to attack.”

John Hopkins, Team Suzuki, DNF: “Well, I’m battered and bruised. I had one of the worst high-sides I’ve ever had on Friday and then came close to topping that one off this afternoon. It was my fault really. I’ve been taking a few painkillers that I’ve been getting from Dr Costa. I just tried to do the best I could and stick with the lead group, but unfortunately my foot was bandaged up and I just lost feeling in it. That was really dangerous because you are on the edge of the tyre so much here. With a broken foot, I just couldn’t feel it on the shifter and I tried to keep my foot clear but accidentally hit the lever on that corner, the bike shifted to second and then I was flying. Looks like I won’t be doing too much moto-crossing at home now. I was also planning to do some promotional events with Red Bull and Crescent during the break, but I need to be at home and recover for Brno. I went well there last year and I’m desperate to get a good result”

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