Southafrican GP. 1st qualifying practice. Driver´s comments

Ukawa: ‘We did so much preseason testing at Suzuka but none here’
Repsol driver´s comments about Southafrican 1st qualifying practiceTohru Ukawa, 3rd MotoGP: ‘I’m pleased to be the first 4-strokes. Obviously today has been a testing day. We did so much preseason testing at Suzuka but none here. We have a lot to do and I’m sure that we can improve all elements of the bikes performance. For me, I like the circuit and I have some good memories from past years. I want to continue these memories!’.Valentino Rossi, 4th GP: ‘Basically today at Welkom we start from zero. We have never been here before with the new bike and have a lot of work to do to make it work properly. Today we have been learning. Tyres, brakes, gear ratios and suspension settings. We need to understand how the bike works. It is a long way from a wet Suzuka and it feels very different! It is slippery on the track and the bumps seem to be worse than last year. This is not motocross!’.Fonsi Nieto, 3rd 250: ‘When I came into the pit at the end of qualifying, I thought I was further back. I had some problems with the front end due to some changes we made that didn’t have the effect we were looking for me. During the sessions I didn’t have enough time to make modifications, so tomorrow we will take a backward step again to return to the same line of development we had at Suzuka. Five minutes before the end of the session, I fitted a tyre to go for a good time, but it was too soft and I was able to do only one lap. In general, times were slower than last year. This is because the track is dusty and slippery, and very bumpy. In spite of this, I guess that tomorrow the lap times will be faster’.Toni Elías 7th 250 : ‘I am satisfied with the result. My times today were good, and my rhythm steady. I rode behind Rolfo to measure my speed, and see if I could follow him. Tomorrow we will have to work with the chassis settings and tyre choice to see if we can find an improvement, because the track is very bumpy. The tyre choice will be definitive for the race. My target on Sunday will be to take a top 15 finish, and score some more points’.Daniel Pedrosa 3rd 125: ‘During the session I had lots of carburetion problems. I couldn’t open the throttle as I wanted, because the response was very jerky, and I was scared I would be thrown off the bike. To sum up, the track is so dusty and bumpy that I can describe this session as an attempt to get a good lap – while balancing on a tight-rope. This afternoon we analysed the data to try and fix the problem. In spite of this, I managed to improve my lap time of last year, so I am confident I can keep on improving’.Joan Olivé 13th 125: ‘This is an easy track to find a the right corner line, but it is very complicated because it is slippery and very bumpy, and with the track temperature at 41 degrees, the tyres wear very quickly. Throughout the session, I only managed two clean fast laps without running into heavy traffic. In a session of only 30 minutes, this is an important consideration. But with only two laps, I have quite a good position. I hope to have more luck tomorrow, and move further towards the front of the grid’.