“The team did a really good job this weekend and the bike was working very well in the race. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great start and on the first lap or two I got boxed in everywhere and I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That cost me a lot of positions but once things settled down I started moving forward and was going well.
Then, passing Elias at the end of the back straight, I got in too hot and it was a silly mistake which I’m not happy about. I was in the draft and just got into the corner a little too fast. After that I got back on the track, put my head down and I’m actually proud of the way we recovered and started setting some really quick laps.
First I caught Colin and lost a little time getting by him. Then I was able to catch Hopkins and Vermeulen on the last lap but we ran out of time to pass them. Still, I think I had the fastest lap of the race for a while which is encouraging considering how things were going earlier this weekend. Click here to read more
1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati 25 points
2. Marco Melandri ITA Honda 20 points
3. Dani Pedrosa SPA Honda 16 points
4. Randy De Puniet FRA Kawasaki 13 points
5. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha 11 points
6. Toni Elias SPA Honda 10 points
7. Chris Vermeulen AUS Suzuki 9 points
8. John Hopkins USA Suzuki 8 points Click here to read more
“This morning in the cooler temperatures I was able to go a lot faster than this afternoon so we definitely need to come up with some adjustments to improve our speed in the hot conditions.
Sixth on the grid is ok, although it hasn’t exactly been the best day for us. My qualifying lap wasn’t perfect and, like at Phillip Island last week, in the last sector of the lap the tyre went a little bit soft. Nonetheless, I was able to move up the field on qualifiers and getting on the second row here is ok. The main thing we have to decide is which race tyre to run with because the track changed so much this afternoon when the temperature came up.
The surface was really hot and greasy, it was quite difficult for me to find enough grip and my rhythm was not so good. We got a decent qualifying position to give ourselves a chance – now we’ve got to improve the settings in race trim. It’s going to be really important to get a good start tomorrow and latch onto the front guys.”
1. Dani Pedrosa SPA Honda 2?01.877
2. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati 2?01.918
3. Marco Melandri ITA Honda 2?01.944
4. Randy de Puniet FRA Kawasaki 2?02.107
5. Anthony West AUS Kawasaki 2?02.202
6. Nicky Hayden USA Honda 2?02.225
7. Chris Vermeulen AUS Suzuki 2?02.301
8. Toni Elias SPA Honda 2?02.432 Click here to read more
1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati 2?02.291
2. Randy de Puniet FRA Kawasaki 2?02.534
3. John Hopkins USA Suzuki 2?02.557
4. Nicky Hayden USA Honda 2?02.589
5. Anthony West AUS Kawasaki 2?02.627
6. Toni Elias SPA Honda 2?02.697
7. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha 2?02.838
8. Marco Melandri ITA Honda 2?03.021 Click here to read more
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