German GP. Races. Driver´s comments

Ukawa: ‘This position from a week ago was only a dream. Much thanks to the medical staff’.
Valentino Rossi, 1st: That win was good for me and the race was good for the show. I got a bad start and a bad first lap where I lost a position. There are some places on the track where the 4-stroke is quicker and I managed to get to the front. I try to push to get away but I make a mistake and lose places to Jacque and Barros. I then see Barros brake too late for the corner and for me it is a gift. But the race is not over. Biaggi and Ukawa are very fast and I have to keep full concentration to stay in the position. I now look forward to a holiday. Tohru Ukawa, 3rd: That was a very, very hard race for me. After the Donington crash I still hurt a lot. I got a great start here and led for several laps. But I was in a lot of pain and gradually got overtaken by Jacque, Barros, Rossi and Biaggi. It was difficult to keep concentration. Finally I get the podium and Im very happy. This position from a week ago was only a dream. Much thanks to the medical staff. Fonsi Nieto, 4th: All weekend, things went perfectly& but today my race couldnt have gone much worse. I was fastest in all five practice sessions, but today it was hard for me to ride faster than 1:27. I made a bad start, but I quickly started to gain places, although it wasnt easy because everyone was passing me on the straight, and it was difficult for me to sustain that pace. I am very disappointed, because I have no explanation. At the last four GPs we have worked well throughout practice, but in the races we gave always had one problem or another. It was very hard for me to get this fourth place today. My bike wasnt working right, and I couldnt do more. I can only say that I will keep on working, and I am not about to surrender. I have shown already that I am the sort of rider who will fight, and I am not going to throw in the towel now, even if they are 25 or even 50 points ahead of me. I am showing I am the hardest rider in the championship, and I am determined to keep on the same way. Toni Elias, 6th: Im not quite satisfied with the weekend, but if we analyse how things have gone, sixth is quite a good result. It was a hard weekend, because I had two crashes during practice, and one of them meant my left hand was quite painful. Today I didnt have everything I needed, because as well as my hand, I suffered quite a few other problems in my neck and back. I made a good start, but my pace wasnt very quick, and it was very hard work for me to get Battaini and Matsudo. When I was in this group I was lucky that it started to rain just when I had passed Battaini. Afterwards when the race stopped, my last pass over the finish line was what counted, and I was sixth. It was a strange race. Riders started to crash, and when De Puniet went down he left some oil on the track. When I ran through that I had a little moment. Tomorrow we had intended to stay and test, but I prefer to have a rest, and recover from these crashes. In Brno, well continue working hard to be up front and fighting for good results. Daniel Pedrosa, 7th: I think this has been the most complicated weekend of my sport career. Both the team and myself have worked to the maximum to try to resolve my suspension problems, but we couldnt do it. In the race, the bike was quick, but in the left turns which is almost all of them it was sliding constantly. Here you spend a lot of time with the bike leaned over, and it was impossible to open the throttle. We had the same problem at Donington, but there are not so many long corners there. There are races in which you have to fight for victory, and others when you have to fight just to finish. Today was one of those. Joan Olive, 11th: It was a very hard race. The machine was sliding, but we already knew that we had to race in this condition. I tried to follow the leading group, but I got stuck in a group of five with Kallio, Ui, Giansanti and Borsoi. In the last lap, I was able to pass them, but I made an error at the bottom of the steep hill, and three of them passed me back. All we could do was fight and get the most possible points.