MotoGP Japan: Rossi crashes, Ducati wins
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Image Gallery ( 28 images )Davide Brivio - Gauloises Yamaha team director: "Our first concern is for Marco Melandri. We are not sure of his injuries just yet but we hope it is not serious and I wish him well on behalf of the whole team. There was a protest against Valentino put forward by Honda on behalf of all its MotoGP Teams, but Race Direction has judged this unfounded. As far as the championship is concerned, it is a pity we couldn't finish it off here and for Valentino it is a shame that his run of podiums has been interrupted. All we can do is try to make up for it by taking the points back next time. Colin finished sixth in a difficult race, but it was an important result for him as it means that he remains in the top positions."
Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda Team, 7th: “Things never really clicked here for the moment I got of the plane really. Seemed like I was on the back foot all weekend and things never came good to be honest. In the race I had a good battle with a few guys and went back and forth with Barros a few times then I overshot at the end of the straightaway and lost a few places. I got things back together and made up some places and rode for the points. I feel I let my boys down here and don’t feel good about it. I just want to make sure we come out of the gate fast in Sepang next week and put things straight.”
Kenny Roberts Jr, Suzuki, 8th:“That was basically the worst result besides falling down that I could have strung together. I think either the temperature change got us or something, but I couldn’t be aggressive from the start and was only using half my braking force. I then got frustrated and was overshooting the corners and by the time I had got to the next corner I didn’t know where the hell to brake. This complicated everything and I then felt as if something was wrong, so that and sliding the front all added up to me just riding around completely lost. “I think we could have had a better result – to what level I don’t know – but we obviously need to keep improving.”
Toni Elias (Fortuna Yamaha Team), 9th: "We leave Motegi with some points and a good finish position overall. However I feel this race weekend was worse than Brno where we've had a better race with a lower classification. We have had a lot of problems with the set-up of the bike this weekend, which we were unable to solve. We will try to go through them in Malaysia and hope to improve there. A lot of riders crashed today and fortunately I didn't, the points we've got today are important for us."
Ruben Xaus (Fortuna Yamaha Team), 10th: "I haven't rode fast today but still I finished tenth. When I saw the other riders crash out of the race I thought that it was better not to push too much and end up next to the track myself. Also when the temperature rose during the race, things only got more complicated. In these kinds of circumstances it's better not to take any risks and just go for the championship points. For the remaining races I will try hard to improve my feeling with the bike and better my results."
Sete Gibernau, Movistar Honda MotoGP: (crashed): “I tried from the start but I didn’t have the pace and I went down, it was my own fault. I was riding behind Checa and trying to force the pace a little, hoping the guys at the front would slow down because I knew I couldn’t go any faster. There’s no need to look for excuses, we’ve done badly again and that’s all there is to it. When it’s not one thing it’s another; we’ve had a difficult season but we have to remain confident that our luck will change.”
Fausto Gresini (Movistar Honda team manager): “Another disastrous day for the team, with crashes for both riders and injuries to Marco. We still don’t know the extent of the injury, or whether he will be fit to race next week. I am gutted because I thought both riders worked well for this race and we had hoped for a much different result.”
Alex Barros , Camel Honda, crashed: “I didn’t get the best of starts, and I soon realised that without having been able to sort the forks set-up out this weekend, it was hard to be efficient under braking. On top of that it was also much hotter than yesterday and the tyres were suffering, mine as much as the others. Anyway, I was picking up positions, albeit with difficulty, and I had Hopkins in my sights when the bike went away from me. At the moment I don’t know why, but I knew that it was a strange crash because I crashed when I was heading into a left turn, but I was still upright. Then Colin (Edwards) who was right behind , told me that I touched a spot of oil left on the track by Nakano and which wasn’t flagged. It’s a shame because I was riding focused after seeing Sete slide out in front of me. Crashing was exactly what I wanted to avoid at all costs, because even though I knew I couldn’t’ do the greatest race, I could still pick up important points to keep up at the top of the championship. Now it’s a whole lot more difficult but there are still five races beginning with Malaysia, in just a week’s time, where we had some good pre-season testing.”
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