Rossi takes fifth MotoGP title but Ducati wins

Jeremy Burgess – Rossi’s Crew Chief: “Obviously the situation in Motegi meant that the celebrations were put off for a week but now we can celebrate. It has been a difficult weekend for all the teams, including ourselves, but we made a few changes in the warm-up and managed to give Valentino a bike that we knew could run for the podium. The season started with exactly the bike that we wanted and Yamaha has done everything we asked for. To win nine out of thirteen races is an excellent achievement by everybody and we have a great package. Good rider, good bike, good team… what more could you ask for?”

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda Team: 4th:“The first few laps were kinda’ fun really. There were guys going for it everywhere. I think I got hit by Sete at one stage and I lost a bit of the tyre right it the centre that caused a little chatter. The bike came a long way this weekend – my guys did a great job. I couldn’t hold the pace in the end. I tried my hardest and tried to hold onto the podium but it wasn’t to be. The tyre I ran today was a lot better than I’ve had all weekend. Michelin did a great job to give us something for the race – really gave us a chance to fight. Fourth is not what I wanted but I learned a lot in the race – mixing it with Valentino, Capirossi and Checa.”

Marco Melandri, Movistar Honda MotoGP, fifth : "I am so tired… the foot wasn't too painful but the area around the cut is much more sensitive to the heat and I almost burnt it. We worked really well with the rear end for the race because it was painful for me to push down on the rear brake but with that we lost a bit of feel for the front. Because of the problems under braking the bike was also sliding a lot on the exit but luckily from the halfway stage onwards, with less fuel and weight on board the bike, I found my rhythm and pushed a little. I'm happy with this result because it was unthinkable that a race could end this way a few days ago. I want to thank all the Clinica Mobile doctors for all their help."

Max Biaggi, Repsol Honda Team:6th: “I remember so well being at this track back in February when I limped onto the factory RCV for the first time, recovering from my broken foot. I was very high on emotion and we were fast on the bike. Sure it was not perfect but it was the start of the year and we had time before the season started to make a good package. When we arrived here we are in a bad shape with the bike. It is not the same machine as it was at the start of the year. As this weekend passed it seems to get worse. In the race there were times when I nearly crashed. Sometimes when things are not right you have to work even harder to make the points and just to get home. Today I make it back with a machine that does not go the way I want and me and my team under Erv tried so hard. We still have second place in the championship and this is a position I will defend right till the end of the season with all my spirit.”

Kenny Roberts Jr, Suzuki, seventh: “The race in Japan was confusing, but here I was allowed to be consistent and I could pretty much ride exactly where I thought I was going to be - as far as race times. We were able to stay consistent and we had a couple of guys go down which brought us up in the order. We are really, really close in as much as if we get something engine-wise to accelerate and run with the other guys, we’ll be right there. The tyre combination that Bridgestone have given us and the torque improvements since Brno have all helped a lot. Now the biggest thing is that the traction control is working much, much better. We now need to get some kind of wheelie control on there - which will help us even more. It’s those little refinements that will put us more and more up the pecking order.”

Paul Denning, Suzuki Team Manager: “The result was not what we wanted but it was close to what I expected. The other guys found some improvements this morning in the areas they were struggling with yesterday and that meant that pretty much everyone was on their normal game. I have to congratulate both riders for a strong and consistent performance. Really though, for John, it was all over in the first lap when he got punted off and dropped from his third place on the grid back to 12th but there are a lot of positives to take again from today. For the second week running both bikes were safely in the top-10, we finished only 17 seconds from first place – the closest we have been in the dry this season - and Kenny and John pushed hard and diced with riders like Biaggi and Barros - who are both on extremely good motorcycles. It’s hot here but it will be even hotter next weekend in Qatar, where hopefully we will continue our upward progress.”

Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 8th: “Today I had to ride a defensive race, without be able to attack. I was behind Roberts and I stayed there, blocked. I only tried once to pass him and I ran it wide, risking crashing. Every time I braked the bike didn’t stop, it jumped, there was no grip at the front and that meant I couldn’t attack to make up places. Probably with this heat everyone had a few difficulties and there are time you can ride over the problems, but this was not really possible on this occasion. I tried to finish the race without crashing, because I didn’t want to do as I did in Motegi and I managed that, but I can’t be happy with eighth place.”

John Hopkins, Suzuki, ninth: “Damn, it was a hot race! We were nowhere near where we wanted to finish. It’s disappointing really but right now with our horsepower disadvantage we have to ride the bike a lot differently – with a lot of corner speed. When we run a lot of corner speed that’s when our lap times come but if we get stuck behind the Ducatis and Hondas we can’t get past them and they hold us up a bit. The thing is that the Honda guys pretty much park it at the apex of the corner and worry about their drive out. When we are behind them we can’t ride how we would like to. But we did what we could and I’m not going to lie, I gave it everything I had and that’s where we ended up. We’ve just got to try and get a better start – I braked way too early for the first corner, got hit on the first lap and went back to 12th. Now I’ll work a little harder in Qatar and go for that first podium!”

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