Pacific GP. Races. Driver´s comments

Toni Elias: ‘I’m going to fight until the end. I’m not going to give up, you could see that today’.
Valentino Rossi, 1.48´885 sec, 2nd: After a few laps I make a mistake in the braking at the first corner. I lost the control of my bike. I go straight on at the corner and the situation was very bad with Gibernau in second place and me in ninth. After it was possible to recover. I ride well, make the fastest lap and it was possible to come back to the second group. At the end it was possible to overtake everyone and to make a good lap on the last lap. Also Sete have some problems so I recover some points. It is possible to arrive in Malaysia with a big advantage. Nicky Hayden, 1.49´409 sec, 3rd: I just heard that Tamada has been disqualified and I guess that has moved me up to third. Its not the way I want to move up the tables. I want a proper podium and thats what Ill be workin hard for. That was a wild race for sure! I wish I was scrapping for the win but Im pretty happy with a seasons best placing. I was ridin real hard. Felt like a squirrel a few times. I was all over the place. I need to smooth things out a little bit. At the end of the race a made a little mistake and a gap opened between me and the Gibernau, Tamada fight. I would like to have been a little closer to take advantage but hay! Im still learnin every week. Moved up the riders table as well in the right direction! Toni Elias, 1.53´612 sec, 1st: ‘I’m very happy, this; has been a good weekend, where we have done a good job and where we’ve been able to keep a good rhythm. The bike has been perfect throughout the race and I’ve been very concentrated. After what happened in Rio, this result has been especially good. I wasn’t demoralised but a bit angry.Today I had a good pace and they couldn’t  follow me, so that I’ve been able to win with a relative ease. When I found a good moment to escape I just did and from then on I set a fast and constant pace. With five laps to go I decided to slow down a bit, I didn’t want to crash. I’m obviously very satisfied and I’m going to fight until the end. I’m not going to give up, you could see that today. We’ve taken the victory and I hope to keep on like this and be able to make more races like the one we did today. It’s also good for the Championship, winning now has become more difficult, but not impossible. I also want to thank my team and my family as well as all those who support me.’Fonsi Nieto, 1.54´837 sec, 8th: ‘It’s been a hard race  and I’m not satisfied at all. I’ve been having problems with the front end of the bike all the weekend and I think that we don’t deserve to be in a situation like this. I’ve been fighting hard, we all are doing everything we can and I falling back  more than ever. All the problems we’re having have to do with the settings, I still have a lot of trouble making the bike turn in the slow corners, which are the easy ones, although it works well in the fast ones. Now we’re going to keep on working and to take drastic decisions for the race in Malaysia.We’re going to try to be where we’ve always been. I made a bad start today because I was far in the back of the grid. Then I began to catch up with the group of the four leading riders and I think that I would have been able to lap with them, but I had a small problem and went off the track, loosing any chance. Even though I kept on lapping just to find out what was happening with the bike. I think that it’s a problem with the weight balance that we’ll have to solve before Malaysia in order to be able to ride well. I want to congratulate Toni, he’s made a great race. I will keep on fighting until Valencia. Last year I took the pole in Malaysia and I must try to be again the usual Fonsi.’Joan Olivé, 1.58´146 sec, 19th: ‘I don’t know what’s happening, I should have finished in a better position. Even though the setting of the bike is not the best one, these results aren’t normal, because I’m capable of doing better. Now I have a week left to analyse what happened this weekend and I’m not going to rest until we’ve found the problem. In Malaysia I’ll be as competitive as I’ve been in the last races. My team and I are going to work very hard until getting everything right. I’ll back in Malaysia. Today, after the start, I noticed that I wasn’t able to follow the riders that were lapping in front of me. So I took it as a practice session, to analyse things we had already noticed during the weekend in order to able to improve them during the race. But in the end I wasn’t able to improve, so now I’ll check whether there is another problem and try to solve it.’Sebastián Porto, 1.54´098 sec, crashed out: ‘I made a good start today and I gave it all during the first laps. I always try to be fast in these first instants because the new tyres allow me to escape a bit. I managed to lap well until halfway the race but then, as the tyres were wearing off the Aprilias arrived. Poggiali and Rolfo passed me and from then on, the race was very difficult. Their bikes accelerated a lot more so I gave it all in the braking sections in order not to let them escape. I was able to get them but when I entered the corner, maybe due to the engine’s characteristics, I crashed. Fortunately I only had a light hit in the ankle and I have a whole week to recover. It’s been a pity because I could have finished in the front, but now  we have to wait until the next race.’Héctor Faubel, 1.56´082 sec, retired: ‘I had a problem with the bike during the sighting lap and I had to get back to the garage. There we saw that a sparking plug had broken so we changed it. But trying to be fast, a cable broke. When I went back on the track the bike worked web but due to the vibrations the cable loosened bit by bit and I had the same problem again. I finally had to stop, although I was already getting a good racing rhythm and catching up with the riders in the front. I could have finished among the top ten today, with no problems, with Debon’s group.’Héctor Barberá, 1.58´964 sec, 1st: ‘I’m very happy with today’s result. After the problems we had on the first practice day, it was very important to win here. I made a good start, putting myself second. Then I tried to follow Dani, but I quickly noticed that it would be impossible, so I focussed especially on taking care of the tyres. With the heat of the three last laps I would have been impossible to finish the race if I wouldn’t have done it like that.  I’ve been watching Stoner and in the last five laps I managed to put myself in the lead. Then, when I saw that that he had any possibility to overtake me, and especially in  the last lap, I concentrated to close the gaps. I took the victory, the bike has worked very well and the setting of the chassis was perfect.’Dani Pedrosa, 1.58´593 sec, 6th: ‘We’ve had bad luck today. In the morning, during the warm-up, things already went bad, because the engine broke down. Then we prepared the second bike to use it for the race. We mounted a different engine, an engine we hadn’t tested this weekend. At the beginning of the race the engine didn’t work very well but then things began to improve, until I had the problem with the front suspension fork and the engine stalled in the last lap.’Pablo Nieto, 1.59´227 sec, 8th: ‘Today’s race hasn’t been good, I had problems during the first three laps and although I managed to get a good rhythm in the end II was already far in the back. I finished eighth. I’m not satisfied with the results but I’m going to give it all in the next races where I think that we have chances to do a good job.’Repsol driver´s tyres choiceValentino Rossi: Medium / HardNicky Hayden: Medium / HardFonsi Nieto: Soft / SoftToni Elias: Hard / HardSebastián Porto: Medium / HardHéctor Faubel: Medium / MediumDani Pedrosa: Medium / MediumPablo Nieto: Soft / SoftHéctor Barberá: Soft / Soft2003 season, all results Repsol drivers All season results and overall standings. Click on ‘Download document’ option on top right side of this page (Pdf format)