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

Nieto: ‘In these temperatures, the race will be complicated’.
Repsol driver´s comments about Italy 1st qualifying practiceValentino Rossi 3rd MotoGP: ‘I’m much happier this afternoon than I was this morning. Already we are going pretty fast compared to last year. The feeling of the bike is now much better. We have made suspension adjustments and the whole bike feels much better. I can go into the corners on the brakes much harder without too much problem. We need to do more work on the gear ratios. It several parts of the circuit the engine isn’t working at its best. The rear tyre grip is better this afternoon but it is still spinning a lot. We’ve now had two hours on the RCV at Mugello and we have a lot of data to look at overnight before tomorrow.’Tohru Ukawa 5th GP: ‘Really pretty pleased with the first day especially as we’ve never tested the RCV at Mugello and I’ve never had particularly good results at this circuit. We’ve done a lot of work to try to get the bike to turn properly and have paid much attention to getting the weight distribution just right, even moving the pegs around at one stage. We’ve done a lot of work this afternoon making adjustments to both machines and logging all the data. We know the bike is fast in a straight line which is good at this circuit, we just need to make sure we can get the power down in the turns. Tomorrow we will be aiming for a front row qualifying position.’Fonsi Nieto, 5th 250: ‘Today was hard. My team and I were focused on improving the bike settings and testing different tyre compounds to try and find the best combination for the race. In this heat, I think that tyre choice will be a defining factor. Fifth is not really bad, because what really bothers me is that the bike functions at its best for the full race distance. We still have tomorrow to work and to improve. In these temperatures, the race will be complicated. Tomorrow after qualifying I will have a long meeting with my team to consider the best options for the race.’Toni Elías 7th 250 : ‘This morning in free training we set good times, and the bike worked pretty well. In the qualifying session in the afternoon, the engine started to lose some power towards the end. In the last lap, when I was going for a final fast time, it stopped. We still don’t know why, but we have one more day to keep on working and find the solution. If everything goes okay I hope to be higher, because although seventh is not bad, I am sure I can do better. This is a complicated circuit, and it is difficult to find the best cornering line with the Aprilia. Tomorrow I will try to improve, because I am quite sure I can run with the leading group’.Daniel Pedrosa 15th 125: ‘It didn’t go well today. In the morning we had some problems with the bike, and in the afternoon they only got worse. We have to work on the suspension settings and geometry, because the bike is unstable, and I couldn’t get the corner speed that I wanted. It wasn’t worth the risk of riding to the absolute maximum, only to get three tenths, because I am still more than 1.5 seconds from the front. This afternoon we took a little step backwards, but I am quite confident we can solve the problems tomorrow, and have a better day.’Joan Olivé 25th 125: ‘It wasn’t a good day for me. At first things were going okay, and the bike was good, but at this track it is very important to be able to follow somebody, because it is long and fast, and it is very helpful to have a reference. I was concentrating so much on that, then I suddenly realised the session was almost over. In the last minutes, I tried to go for a fast lap on my own, but I had left it too late. Today, I was the problem! On the positive side, the bike is working well, so tomorrow I am confident I can make a big improvement in my lap time.’