MotoGP 800cc Round 1 – Ducati draws first blood

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Casey Stoner

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Rossi’s Yamaha Fiat teammate Colin Edwards had been consistently the fastest in practice but had a bad race, finishing a distant sixth from the winner ( +18.647 seconds). “I spun off the line on the dirty part of the track and so my start wasn’t great, which was annoying. I had a bit of a feeling just before we went out that we would be slower in the first few laps as the tyre was going to take time to heat up and unfortunately that was the case; I just couldn’t push hard enough in those vital first few laps. Anyway after that I was holding pace okay and thought I could stay with the top group but then I had a near crash on lap seven or eight coming into turn seven, to the extent when I was holding the bike up on my knee and elbow! I somehow figured out how to get it back up after 30 metres but we lost quite a bit of time. From then on my rhythm was okay and honestly the race as a whole wasn’t so bad, but the tyre felt a bit greasy and I was lacking some front grip, which was strange after it had been perfect all weekend. We definitely need more power – that was obvious today, so that’s priority number one for Yamaha I guess! Anyway, we’ve learnt a lot this weekend so let’s go forward from here.”

Chris Vermeulen’s seventh place on the Rizla Suzuki gives Suzuki its best team result yet and Team Manager Paul Denning had his best press conference in ages. “It has been a great day’s work by the Team, by Suzuki and by Bridgestone. John did everything – and more – that we wanted of him and I am sure he would have loved to have been on that podium. He had a good go on the last lap, but it wasn’t going to happen without a massive risk and it was good to see him show maturity and bring the bike and himself home safely.

“Chris has had a difficult weekend but showed what an asset he is by bringing the bike from 16th on the first lap to a very creditable seventh. That result will give him great confidence for the next few races and when he improves on his qualifying positions I am sure he will be challenging right up there.

“I guess today’s result and the potential we have shown demonstrates how far we have come since the race here last year. It’s a solid start to this season and we are really looking forward to getting to Jerez and carrying on with the good work.”

Chris Vermeulen had an equally impressive race finishing in seventh after starting back on the fifth row in 13th place. He got relegated back to 16th on the first lap, but fought his way up the field to record valuable points for himself and the Team.

“It was a difficult race starting so far back and I ran wide on the first turn and lost some more places,” said Vermeulen. “I started to get through the field even though it’s not easy to pass on this track. I had a lot of work to do and was passing people quite hard and pushing the front tyre, which might have used the tyre up a bit too much early on, but I had to get past! In the end I was trying to catch some quick guys and just couldn’t get up to them. I ended up seventh which was obviously a lot better than last year, but we still have a lot to do. The plan is now to go to Jerez and win, but irrespective if we can go there and improve on this position it will be a good result.”

Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) finished a distant eighth. The reigning World Champion said, “I tried to learn as much as I could in the race. I really felt like I rode my hardest and had some good dices with a few of the guys – I just about caught Vermeulen on the last lap and I got faster as the race went on. My last two laps were my fastest laps of the race and that’s the positive thing. It’s been a tough weekend but I’m not going to whine and make a bunch of excuses. I qualified ninth and finished eight and, compared to the top boys, we we’ve just been off the pace for the whole weekend.”

Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) was tenth and said, “Well I at least did what I said I would do and crossed the line to get some points, which is so important in such a long season. My start was not so good, but I soon got into a good rhythm. I benefited from a number of people crashing out and soon spent most of the race battling with Nicky Hayden and Chris Vermeulen. I so wanted to catch and pass both of these riders but unfortunately I didn’t have the lap times to do it.”

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