After yesterday’s MotoGP riders complaints regarding the bumpiness of the Phillip Island circuit, Linfox Property Group who owns the circuit has decided to resurface the track in time for the 2013 season, so the riders will have to suck it up for another year.

After Valentino Rossi’s latest dismal qualifying result, he’s the third slowest Ducati rider with the most updated machine, only rookie Karel Abraham and substitute rider Damian Cudlin are slower. Italian fans are demanding that Rossi be sacked immediately for incompetence and for making Ducati spend so much money and that he return his 15 million euro paycheck to the Italian manufacturer.

Casey Stoner will turn 26 tomorrow and his fiefdom is Phillip Island and after today’s latest pole position and while other riders are discussing which tire to use, fans are wondering just how much much margin he’ll win by and when the Australian circuit will name a corner after him.

Casey Stoner - 1st

“So far so good, we have a good race pace and the bike’s feeling pretty good at the moment. We still need to improve the rear grip, but I think this is the same for everyone, we’d also like to get the harder rear tyre working better for the race. We began Qualifying with older tyres to understand where we are for the race and I’m quite happy as the lap times we were achieving were similar to Jorge and Dani who were on the new soft tyre. Then we put on the soft tyre for the first time since yesterday morning, everything felt good and we were able to improve our lap time consistently, but it’s still difficult on the left side of the tyre and we’re getting a lot of spinning and tyre degradation. We’ll see what the weather does tomorrow, it’s not looking too good right now but we’ll adapt to whatever it throws at us. Jorge is strong everywhere we go and I think my chances of taking the Championship here tomorrow is pretty slim to be honest, we’re just going to go out there and concentrate on winning the race.”

Jorge Lorenzo - 2nd

“We did a very good job today. We tried many things and I believe we have the right set up for tomorrow. I have to thank my team who worked hard to make sure I have the best possible bike to fight with. The race will be very tough, it will be very important to be consistent with a good race pace. I will try to win, I know it will be very difficult here with Casey but I will try!”

Marco Simoncelli - 3rd

I am really happy because it has been a while since we started on the front row. We have been fast over the past two days although we have had a few crashes too. The day didn’t start well because of the conditions, which were cold and windy, and that made it difficult. This afternoon we managed to do a better job and enjoyed an excellent qualifying session so my goal tomorrow is to push to the maximum from the start. Stoner looks untouchable at the moment but in racing you can never say never!”

Álvaro Bautista - 4th

“I’m very happy with today, because I got my best qualifying result so far in MotoGP and at the toughest track for Suzuki, so that shows what good work we have done since last year. It was a fantastic lap behind Dovizioso and when I saw him in front of me on the track, I thought this is my opportunity – if I can’t do a good lap now, I’ll never do one! Third row was not difficult to achieve today, but when I followed him everything seemed easier. With this type of track in this wind and with these types of corners, it helps if you can follow another rider, you can certainly improve a lot and it feels much easier to ride. My feeling is good for tomorrow and I’ll try to make a strong start and stay with the front guys in the first one or two laps. If we can do that I think we will be competitive, because in the first few laps all riders will push hard and after six or seven laps the tyres will probably drop off and the rhythm will settle down. I will try to do a good race tomorrow and get the best possible result I can.”

Andrea Dovizioso - 5th

“I’m very happy with qualifying because we made a big improvement which we needed to do for the race. We know there are many riders capable to fight for the podium, but now we are ready. Here it is always a very difficult race with the weather conditions, but I’m satisfied now because I can do low 1′31 laps with the hard rear tyre and hopefully we can return back on the podium. I had a much better feeling in the front and I was riding more aggressively, something you really need at this track.”

Nicky Hayden - 6th

“This was my first time on the second row this year, and for a while today, I thought I could do even better. It’s good, but we’re not celebrating sixth place since we expect a lot when we come to Phillip Island. The main thing for tomorrow will be to figure out how to get the tyres to last over race distance, and I’m having to use some strange lines to miss all the bumps. I lost a bit of time when one front tyre didn’t come in, but other than that, I’ve got no excuses. I had good, clear laps, and I went about as fast as I could. Tomorrow will be my 150th Grand Prix in the premier class, and I’m proud to be here that long and still be on a factory team. With this grid position, it would be nice to get our best dry result tomorrow. It will be very tough because a lot of guys are going quick, but we’ll try.

Ben Spies - 7th

“I got a little bit off line in qualifying this afternoon and hit a big bump, losing the front. It’s unfortunate as we were trying a different bike set up which was looking pretty good. It happened on the third lap, according to the data I came off at 270km/hr so I went through the gravel trap pretty quick! My knees, ribs and elbows are all pretty banged up but that’s normal, that’s how it is. The bike is working well so we need a good start; we’re in a good position on the grid for it so we’ll see what happens.”

Dani Pedrosa - 8th

“I had some problems with the hard tyre and I wasn’t able to be fast. Then when I put the soft on I improved my lap time a lot and was on top with fifteen minutes to go. Then we changed the set up of the bike a little and unfortunately it didn’t work, so when everybody improved the lap time I couldn’t and I was back to eighth place. The main issue I had today was changing direction in high speed areas. Let’s see what the weather brings tomorrow and if we can take profit from the warm up to improve the set up slightly. I’m feeling much more comfortable with the soft tyre, so we will see tomorrow if we can use it for the race or not depending on the temperature and weather conditions.”

Colin Edwards - 9th

“I’m pretty happy to be have finished on the third row because conditions were pretty tough out there. The track is really bumpy but the issue today was the wind. It was really blowing hard in some places and it is just so unpredictable. One lap you get a big gust hit you from the right, so you prepare for that next time round and you get slammed on the other side. If you could put the bike where you want every lap you could easily go half-a-second faster, but the wind just doesn’t allow you to do that. The bike is working good and the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team is working fantastic as always for me, so I’m ready for a good race tomorrow. We’ve got to run the soft front and rear tyres for the race and my bike works pretty good with those options. I tried the hard tyres ye sterday and couldn’t get them to work at all. I’ll have to take care at the start of the race to make sure we don’t abuse the tyre too much at the beginning but I’m looking forward to having some fun and getting a good result.”

Loris Capirossi- 10th

“It was hard today as the shoulder gives me pain. Also at the end I had the time to try another fast lap but I choose to stay where I was, which is anyway a good place. The bike reacts well on this track even if in some part we must improve. The Team has also worked really and today I enjoyed again riding. It has been rare this year to have fun while riding, but I hope I will have some other chances before the end of the season.”

Randy De Puniet - 11th

“The plan was to push at the beginning in case it was going to rain during the practice. We did well and were fast straight away being up front in the first six positions for a while. The weather kept dry and when it was time to use the last two soft tires we found some problems starting bike number one, the one I was using. So we had to switch to bike two and the feeling wasn’t the same. We were quite unlucky as I am quite positive the third row was a sure thing. Hopefully we will get back the luck we miss out today during the race!”

Hiroshi Aoyama - 12th

”Unfortunately when I went out to improve my position on the starting grid I crashed at turn six and that compromised the whole session. It was a violent impact and I decided not to go back out because I didn’t feel in the best shape. The cold and wind did not help us to work as we wanted today but even though I had more confidence yesterday the set-up is not bad. I hope the weather improves tomorrow so that I can have a good Grand Prix.”

Valentino Rossi - 13th

“Before we arrived here, we expected to do much better than this, considering that Phillip Island is a track where Ducati and I have always done well. Instead, I again had trouble riding today, and I was very slow. It’s really a shame, and I’m very sorry. Evidently we haven’t managed to solve the problems we’ve had since the first session here. We’ll try to make some small changes in tomorrow’s warm-up, but although we’ll certainly try to do better than this, I’m expecting a very challenging race.”

Cal Crutchlow - 14th

“There is not much to say other than I am very disappointed because I expected to be competing for a place inside the top 10 here and it has been a struggle to find a good set-up with the bike. We spent a long time analysing the data last night because yesterday I didn’t have good front or rear grip and turning was also an issue. We made a lot of changes to the bike today and to be honest we didn’t find any improvement and I’ve got the same issues. The track is really bumpy and I can’t get the bike to absorb them smoothly and we just don’t have the grip we need to go faster. We’ve tried a lot of things to make it better but for some reason nothing seems to be working. I went just as fast with a set of tyres that had 30 laps on them as I did with two brand new tyres, so we need to sit down again tonight and work through the data and see if there is something we can improve for the race.”

Toni Elias - 16th

“Compared to yesterday the conditions were a bit tricky with cooler temperature and stronger wind and it seems we could not get the feeling we had yesterday in warmer conditions. After that we got some issues in turn one and turn eight just about front feeling and we have been working on that this afternoon trying to fix the problem but we could not really improve. I am still convinced we have got the potential to race in the top-10 so in tomorrow’s warm up session we will try to fix the bike and, as always, I have to take a good start from the back of the pack”.

Damian Cudlin - 17th

“I am in a lot of pain. The crash this morning took me completely by surprise and it was pretty aggressive. It was a real shame to crash so early on and especially to cause so much damage. We had been doing a good job up to that point but afterwards it was difficult to get any useful data. I took a heavy blow to my hip and lost a lot of skin from my left side. They have done a good job in the clinic to get me going again and have advised complete rest to give me the best possible chance tomorrow. I’ll try to go out in the warm-up, see how I feel and take it from there.”

(1 votes | Average: 5 / 5)

0 comments