German GP. First practice. Driver´s comments

Rossi: ‘We need to make a little bit more better tomorrow’.
MotoGP. Valentino Rossi, 1.24´335 sec, 1st: ‘At the end it was not so bad today. We work on the bike for Sunday to get the best settings. We have a big job to make the best tyre selection with Michelin because this circuit is very hard on tyres. At the end we are quite happy; but we are not at 100%. We need to make a little bit more better tomorrow. One of the bikes had the loud and new exhaust system. Basically at the moment it doesn’t give any advantage. I’m feeling a little better myself and my cold condition is coming better.’MotoGP. Nicky Hayden, 1.25´555 sec, 14th: ‘I really enjoyed the track and the ride today. It’s pretty tight for sure and I think we’ve made pretty good progress today. At the end of the session when I was really going for a good time I went off the track – a little eventful – with only a couple of laps to go. Generally felt pretty good for a first day. I’ll sleep on it and hope to build on it tomorrow. I really want a good grid slot for the race.’250. Sebastián Porto, 1.26´500 sec, 4th: ‘It’s been a good practice session, I’ve been in the lead almost throughout the session. But close to the end we mounted a hard compound focussing on the race and I crashed. Maybe the front tyre was too hard. Too bad because we were making a good practice and if we wouldn’t have had this crash, I probably could have improved my time. But the most important is that I didn’t get hurt, that I still have tomorrow left and that I’m in the front row. We only have to improve a bit to keep the position tomorrow and try to find a bit better setting as well.’250. Fonsi Nieto, 1.26´768 sec, 8th: ‘The crash in the last lap has been a shame. I found a slower rider in the middle of the track, I braked a little later to pass him but I crashed. I was on my way to set the second fastest time on that lap. At least, today’s times have been good. I have good rhythm but we have to try to get rid of some weight on the rear end of the bike in order not to load the front tyre too much. This afternoon we also changed the setting we had this morning and it didn’t have the expected result. The most important is that I feel well after winning in England and I think that we’re able to be in the front again.’250. Toni Elias, 1.26´876 sec, 9th: ‘I felt comfortable on the bike this morning but I had some problems with the setting of the chassis in the afternoon. We made some changes that made the general behaviour worse and we didn’t have time left to solve it. At least we have tomorrow left to improve. The engine is working well but this track needs a good balance of the bike’s cycle. It’s a very slow track and if you don’t take the bike along the line it’s difficult to set fast times. Anyway, we’re going to try to solve the problem in order to improve tomorrow and get a good position for the race.’250. Joan Olivé, 1.27´099 sec, 11th: ‘It’s been a good practice and I’m happy with my position. We’ll have to keep on working tomorrow to finish the fine tuning of the bike and try to make a good start on Sunday. The first part of the circuit is very slow and then there is a faster section. We’ve found a setting I like. Now I’m going to look at the telemetry data with the team to see where we have to work more and where we can improve.’250. Héctor Faubel, 1.27´898 sec, 13th: ‘We’re finding the right set-up and the right line we had lost several races a ago. I’m happy with the times I set today. I think that if we change some minor things in the settings I’ll be able to make a faster time and get a place among the top ten. This circuit is very complicated because it’s very slow. Spaniards are not used to these kinds of tracks because there are no tracks like this in Spain. But I’m very happy today because it seems that we’ve finally solved the problems we had.’125. Pablo Nieto, 1.28´941 sec, 3rd: ‘This circuit adapts quite good to my riding style, the corners are very fast and everything is linked well. Even if it’s a short track it’s one of the tracks I like most. Here the power of the engine is not so important as it is on other tracks, because there are no long straights. For the moment, we’re working on the right direction, that’s the most important. Too bad I crashed in the last lap, but things like this happen when you try to be fast and set good times.’125. Dani Pedrosa, 1.29´147 sec, 8th: ‘We had several problems with the front tyre this afternoon, it bounced a lot and we don’t know if the problem is in the bike or in the suspension. Therefore we cannot say that the practices were good. Let’s hope to have a competitive bike before Sunday to be able to race under good conditions.’125. Héctor Barberá, 1.29´491 sec, 12th: ‘It’s been quite a hard day, because the settings we had prepared for the bike aren’t good for this circuit and we had to start all over again. It seems that we’ve found out the problems and I hope to have more luck tomorrow and be able to ride well. For the moment I’m riding three seconds faster than last year on the same circuit, so it means that we’re doing a good job. We are almost sure about the tyres to use for the race, the setting is moving forward well and there are only some minor problems left to be solved.’