Dutch GP. First practice. Driver´s comments

Nieto: ‘We have to do a good job and we cannot make any mistakes if we want to clinch the leadership. This race will be the key to the championship’.
MotoGP. Valentino Rossi, 2.00´496 seg, provisional pole: ‘A good day. The bike is working well and feels very stable and very precise. There are a couple of parts of the circuit where we need to improve but we are in good shape after day one. The new pipes are very noisy and it was sometimes difficult to keep concentration. Tomorrow we decide which bike we will use; I am happy with both. The bike feels good with the tyres and we have no problem with traction – it’s very, very good. Right on the edge I don’t have much feeling but we can work on this tomorrow.’MotoGP. Nicky Hayden, 2.02´346 seg, 13th: ‘Day one was definitely a learning experience. This track is really cool and is probably the most knarley (wild) I’ve ever been on. You hardly ever go straight. Constantly going left to right, left to right. It’s gonna to be a hard race alright! I’ve just been trying to get a good rhythm. Half way through the session I was up in P5 then towards the end a lot of the guys really got going and I couldn’t seem to respond. Right at the end I improved my time when I hooked up behind Valentino – though not as much as I would have liked. Got a busy day tomorrow.’Fonsi Nieto, 2.04´866 sec, provisional pole: ‘We’ve started off with the right foot. I chose a soft compound for the last minutes of the session and took the pole. It’s a good result because we don’t know what the weather will look like tomorrow. I felt very comfortable during the last section and I managed to make up some important tenths that helped me to set the fastest time. It’s weird because it’s exactly the section where I broke my feet two years ago. I have a good rhythm on this circuit but I’m not able to be fast with used tyres yet. We’re improving race by race; today I’ve been working on both bikes and I’ve also been testing different tyres for the race. We’re getting closer to the leadership and from now on, the championship is open, because it’s four of us fighting for the top. We have to do a good job and we cannot make any mistakes if we want to clinch the leadership. This race will be the key to the championship.’Toni Elias, 2.05´049 sec, 2nd: ‘I’m satisfied, because for the first time I’ve been fighting against the other riders for the fastest time of a practice session. The team is doing a great job and we’re improving bit by bit. I like this track a lot and I have a good rhythm for the race, but we still have to improve. Fonsi, Poggiali and De Puniet will also be there and I’m sure that it’s going to be a hard race. We’re three riders, seven points behind the leadership and if we want to reduce the advantage we have to work right and be constant.’Sebastián Porto, 2.06´309 sec, 7th: ‘It hasn’t been bad at all considering the problems we had this morning with the engine, even in the afternoon. We lack speed and on a circuit like this, it means falling back. We’ve also had some frame problems that set us back as well, but that is something that doesn’t worry me much. We’ll have to fine tune the frame settings tomorrow and work on the engine in order to make the bike give at least the 100% of its potential.’Joan Olivé, 2.07´754 sec, 14th: ‘The practice sessions have been quite positive, we’ve been able to improve the times set in the morning, something very important because it means that we’re moving forward with the evolution of the bike. I had never lapped with this bike on this circuit and it’s very different than riding on a 125cc. I arrive much faster to the corners and the straights aren’t that straight any more. We have to continue like this tomorrow, making kilometres and trying to improve the times set today.’Héctor Faubel, 2.08´423 sec, 17th: ‘We’re still trying to solve the problem we’ve been having with the front suspension for many races. We’re testing several new settings and it seems that we’ve finally found the right way. The team is working hard and now we have to tune the bike for the race, to work and to keep on fighting. Let’s see how things work out tomorrow.’Héctor Barberá, 2.11´741 sec, 4th: ‘I’m very happy. We set the fastest time this morning and I finished fourth this afternoon. I have a good set-up and the engine has worked well. Today’s times have been quite fast in general, but I’m satisfied because I have a constant rhythm. The only inconvenience is that there has been a lot of traffic on the track during the last minutes and I was hindered by other riders while trying to improve my time. However, I’m satisfied with how things are working out and I’ll try to keep my place on the first row of the grid tomorrow.’Dani Pedrosa, 2.12´610 sec, 11th: ‘We’ve been having several mechanical problems both during the free session and during the timed practice, that hindered me from finishing the sessions. We had already noticed that the bike wasn’t running but eventually the problems became worse. We have to analyse the data to avoid these problems tomorrow and get a better position on the grid. Assen is a circuit that brings back good memories to me; I got my first victory here last year. It’s a very nice layout, fast, it makes me feel comfortable and gives me good sensations, despite not achieving results in any way similar to last year. ‘Pablo Nieto, 2.12´739 sec, 12th: ‘I haven’t felt comfortable on the bike today. The problem has been that I wasn’t very centred so I wasn’t able to set good times. We’re in the back, but at least I know that it’s been my own problem. We still have tomorrow left to improve, and get a better position on the starting grid.’