Portugal GP. Repsol driver´s comments

Nieto: ‘Ill keep on fighting in Estoril as I have been doing until now and the only thing I hope this time is to have luck on our side’.
Valentino Rossi. I look forward to Estoril. Obviously we had the problems in Brno and it is not the way I would have wanted to start the second part of the season. Anyway we had a good couple of days testing at Valencia last week which we needed as the competition is now getting stronger. I finished third on the 500 in 2000 at Estoril and won the race last year. We need to good result in Portugal to maintain the momentum of the season. Tohru Ukawa. The last couple of races have been very strange. I have been unlucky and lucky. Since the Donington accident I have been pretty sore. My condition wasnt made any better by the Sunday morning warm up crash in Brno when I had quite a big high-side. However at the Sachsenring and last week at Brno I managed to get two podium finishes as a result of retirements ahead of me (Barros and Jacque at Sachsenring and Rossi in Brno). I still hold second position in the championship and will try my hardest to keep it a 1:2 for the Repsol Honda Team. Fonsi Nieto: I have good memories of this circuit and I like it a lot because I did one of my best races two years ago with the Yamaha. We start with good settings here, since we spent two days riding during the IRTA tests held in February and rode very close to the circuits best times. This layout is one of the slowest of the calendar as is its chicane. Ill keep on fighting in Estoril as I have been doing until now and the only thing I hope this time is to have luck on our side. Im giving my best, fighting hard race after race and Ill keep on doing it, focussed on myself and my results. Lets hope for good weather, because one of the inconvenients of this circuit is the strong blowing wind. The track is also very bumpy and therefore good chassis and suspension settings will be essential for the race. Toni Elias: After the result in Brno and putting myself fourth in the overall classification of the championship, Im arriving in Estoril with high spirits and willing to work. I hadnt set myself any goal this year, but things are going better than I had expected. We still have a lot of work to do but Im very satisfied with how the team is responding. Here Ill work as much as I can to get a good result. I like this circuit a lot; its layout with long straights and very tight corners is one of the slowest of the championship. We will have to work a lot on the settings of the suspensions and the chassis, because the circuit is very bumpy. It will be a tough race but Ill do my best to be with Fonsi, Melandri and Rolfo, and stay with them until the end. Dani Pedrosa. There are six races left and we have managed to shorten distances with Poggiali, but now there is Vincent as well, who has shown to be in a very good shape during the last races, so now we have two rivals. The aim for Portugal is to keep on working as we have been doing the whole season, without taking any unnecessary risks, though very focussed and going step by step. I only hope that the wind, always very nasty in Estoril, doesnt show up this weekend. Joan Olivé. Too bad I crashed in the Czech Republic. I think that I would have managed to get a place on the podium again. But, anyway, lets forget that and focus on the next race this weekend in Portugal. It is one of the slowest tracks of the calendar and I remember it to be quite bumpy. I dont know whether they have fixed it or not, but if not we will have to work a lot on the suspensions.