First qualifying sesion. Driver´s comments

Nieto: ‘It seems this race will be a face-to-face battle with Melandri, but I think Toni is also capable of joining our fight’.
Valentino Rossi, 3rd: The bikes actually working pretty well round here and we made some good settings right from the start. We need to do more work with the tyres and the suspension to understand the life of the tyre in race conditions. The bike seems quite nervous in places. If you ride very sweet and quiet it is OK! There are places where the tyre spins up but with some work on the gearing and good tyre knowledge we should have a better package for tomorrow and the race Tohru Ukawa, 7th: Were getting there little by little. If you said Id be on the provisional second row of the grid this morning I would have been happy with that! 7th fastest is fine. This morning I really had to feel my way back onto the bike after the accident last week around this track that is not my favourite in the calendar. This afternoon we started to make changes to the settings and the times show we are going in the right direction. Im happy today is over; its been very tiring. I will rest now before tomorrow. Fonsi Nieto, 1st: I am focused on the overall performance of the bike and the tyres. We are also going to make some small carburetion changes, to see if we can gain some more top speed, although at this track top speed is not a major factor. In both sessions I showed I have a constant pace, and a good pace. Having provisional pole is not that important, but with this variable weather the best thing is to work to the maximum from the first day. We are still in front, but the most important thing is to find the right set-up that will give me the chance to fight for victory in the race. After setting pole I started another lap, and was running two tenths below my time, until it was ruined when my foot slipped off the foot peg. It seems this race will be a face-to-face battle with Melandri, but I think Toni is also capable of joining our fight. Toni Elias, 6th: I made some setting changes in the qualifying session that didn´t have the result we expected. In the morning, the bike was much better, but 20 minutes before the end I had a small crash at the end of the straight. I´m not really comfortable with the way the bike is right now. Tomorrow we will take some steps backwards, and work with the settings we used at Donington, to see if that will help me get among the front runners. I am one second off provisional pole, but at the moment this doesn´t worry me. I am confident in my team, and I am sure that tomorrow we can gain a few places in the classification. If the weather permits. Daniel Pedrosa, 4th: We dedicated most of that session to tyre testing, and to try to solve the suspension problems that are probably common to all the riders. It happened to us at Donintgon, and we only found the cause after the race. There and here we were having problems with the rear suspension pumping. Here we hope to find the solution more quickly. I dont really like this circuit. The corners are very slow and the few quick ones are very bumpy. In spite of this, we are working without feeling the pressure, so we can concentrate on finding concrete solutions to our problems. Joan Olive, 16th: The morning session was wasted because the track was very humid, so until the afternoon we didnt really start to try things, starting with the information from last year. My engine is working really well, but there is no way to find front grip. For the moment, I am a little back on the grid, but I hope to get a better position tomorrow. The circuit is so small and twisty that it will be very important to be on the front of the grid for the race. I am not comfortable at this track the first part is very slow & but its the same for all of us.