Japan GP. Races. Driver´s comments

Rossi: ‘The win for me here is good. It is special for Honda and 25 points for me at the beginning of the championship is important’.
Moto GP. Valentino Rossi, 1st: ‘We worked very had over the winter to get a good race rhythm – we actually did five full race simulations to make sure the life of the tyre is good. At the beginning of the race we had a good fight with Biaggi and Capirossi. I think it is possible to go a little bit faster so I go. I make the 8-hours here so 21 laps for me is easy! The win for me here is good. It is special for Honda and 25 points for me at the beginning of the championship is important. But after hearing about Kato nothing is very important.’MotoGP. Nicky Hayden, 7th: ‘That was good. I got a good start – it was all pretty hairy out there! Some of the guys I’d never even seen on the track before! I just tried to get in a rhythm and wanted to start to move forward. At times in the first few laps I was a little bit soft in passing – I just wanted to come here and get a result and just get some experience. I’ve now got a race under my belt – I stayed up and finished. I’m happy I did that! I had a good battle with a lot of guys and even Colin. Funny – I’ve come all this way to Japan to race him – could have just gone to Texas!250. Fonsi Nieto, 6th: ‘It hasn’t been that bad at all I got some important points for the Championship. But I’m not happy, I’m having more problems than expected. Now I have to sit down with the team and look for a solution, we have to take another direction for the settings. I’m giving it all on the track and I want to fight for the victory of this Championship. The race has been very slow, last year I was lapping on 2’08’ here, but today we’ve made the race without getting under 2’10’. I think that it’s due to the practices, we’ve only had one under dry conditions and it’s been a shame. But now we have to fight, to continue like this and think about South Africa.’250. Toni Elias, retired: ‘I started from the twenty-seventh position of the grid, then I went up to twelfth, I was recovering well and suddenly I went off the track because I almost touched Poggialli. I went back on the track on seventeenth place and started to make up positions again. When I had the leading group at only five seconds, my engine broke. I tried to finish the race, but the engine was getting worse with each lap and it finally broke down completely. It’s been a shame. I think that I would have been able to win the race the way I’ve been riding today, but that’s the way races are.’250. Sebastián Porto, 4th: ‘I’m very happy. Finishing fourth in the first race is very important; taking into account that the Japanese riders do not take part in the whole World Championship, it is as if I would have finished second. The team has made a good job, because we only had one dry practice here and it was very complicated to set the bike for the race. But we have to keep on working, because we still have a lot of difference with regard to the Aprilias. Let’s hope that Honda gives us good material, making it possible to improve tobe able to fight for the victory.’250. Héctor Faubel, retired: ‘The race was a difficult one from the beginning due to the heavy crash I suffered yesterday. Despite not being at a 100% I decided to take the start and do everything I could. I left the group and I entered the corner as I always do, but I lost control of the front and I had a crash seven or eight laps before the end of the race. It’s been a very hard weekend; South Africa will be like the first race for me, because things haven’t been quite clear in this race.’250. Joan Olivé, 13th: ‘This has been a quite strange race, I started from the last position and the truth is, that with so many practices in wet I hadn’t been able to ride on a dry track to have a good setting. I started and I did all I could. But I’m satisfied because it is important to get points in the first race. I hope to be able to finish in a better position in the next one.’125. Pablo Nieto, 6th: ‘The race wasn’t that bad. After taking the start, the bike stopped. I was sixteenth after the first lap. The truth is, that the bike didn’t work well today. But this is the first race of the season and the Grand Prix of Japan is always a somehow strange and difficult race. The most important thing today was getting some points and do it as good as possible.’125. Dani Pedrosa, 7th: ‘I made a very good start and I was able to keep the lead during several laps. Then I fell back, things always get complicated when you get to the fork, and I was watching Cecchinello, who was riding ahead of me in order not to let him escape. Finally Jenkner made a mistake at the fork and I put myself parallel to him, while he was pushing me to the outside bit by bit. I tried to hold on at the outside of the corner and then we both braked. I was well situated but I wasn’t able to gear down, I don’t know why, I just couldn’t. I entered the corner almost without braking and I went on until I lost the track. But the bike worked well in general during the whole race, leaving the off track aside; I think that we’ve made a good race. This has been a positive weekend, we’ve been at the front, something we didn’t expected after the practices in Jerez and we are very hopeful with regard to the next race.’125. Héctor Barberá, retired: ‘The start was perfect, I felt very comfortable while being in the race. Then, in a corner, I lost control of the rear of the bike and I crashed. There was nothing I could do to avoid crashing. I don’t know what happened, it’s the first time I loose the bike like that. It’s been a shame because I was riding in the leading group and I could have made a good result.’