[SIZE=-1] Valentino Rossi - Position: 5th Time: +13.305
"We expected a difficult race here, but actually not as difficult as this! We haven't been fast here in Qatar since last week's night test but, despite this, I thought we might be able to fight for the podium. Tonight however it was really difficult and now we have to understand the reason for this result. After five or six laps I started doing 56.4 and 56.5 and from then on I couldn't improve on that pace until the end. I was very fast in braking, but not so fast in the corners. We know that we can make our Bridgestone tyres work better than this, because they are winning tyres and tonight they showed it once again. Throughout the winter, at all tracks, we were very fast and this is the only one where we were not. Now our task is to understand why this happened. We had a couple of ideas to try but in the end we decided to stick to what we know because we need some more time to understand how to improve and how to be faster. We know we can do better than this and so we just need to gather all the information and use it in the best way for the next race. Finally I want to say congratulations to Lorenzo for a great debut tonight; honestly I'm not surprised because I knew he was fast and talented, but he did very well tonight in a hard race so well done to him."
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 2nd Time: +5.323
"For sure I couldn't have expected a better debut than this and I am very, very excited to be on the podium. Second place is an amazing result for me and I had great fun. The start and first few laps were a bit crazy and really a bit of a scary time for me, but anyway I managed to make it through and get past some riders to get to second. I started to go with Stoner but after a while I became very tired and I started to have a lot of pressure and pain in my arms, so I really couldn't push any more! Anyway he was faster than us and I want to say congratulations to him because he deserved to win tonight. I think if I could have got a better start, maybe I wouldn't have got so tired later on and I would have been able to keep a better rhythm, but anyway I don't think I can ask for more than this tonight. I want to thank Yamaha and Michelin for all the hard work they have put in over the winter to get me to this point, and of course my team for all of their work. I don't want to start talking about the championship yet because this is only my first race, and now we will go to Jerez and do our very best again there and see what happens!"[/SIZE]
Nicky Hayden finished tenth and said: "It wasn't pretty for sure. We wanted more than just top ten but we struggled here from the time we rolled out at the tests. We haven't really made much progress and it hasn't been for a lack of effort, these guys have worked really hard. We got beat bad today so we've obviously got a lot of work to do. I got a decent start but I couldn't push the way I wanted to, couldn't be aggressive and couldn't make anything happen, so I kinda went backwards then I went forward again. I was spinning a lot, which definitely didn't do the rear tyre any favours, I really think we just missed the set-up and worked the tyre way too hard so I was spinning way too much."
Podium-placed Pedrosa said: "Tonight's result is unbelievable, we didn't expect this, so I'm very happy. Seven days ago I was almost last in the tests here but my team have worked really hard, bringing both 2007 and 2008 bikes here and making many changes - they've been fantastic. For the first time I understand the meaning and the legend of HRC and I'm so proud to be part of this. They gave me a competitive bike and the Michelin tyres worked really well and I did my best on track but without them I couldn't have been able to make it. I couldn't stay with Lorenzo and Stoner, so we still have to improve but since last week's tests we've made an incredible step forward. Now we have a few weeks to recover full strength in the hand before Jerez."
CASEY STONER - 1st (Ducati Marlboro Team)
"That was a fantastic race and I really enjoyed it - it was like being back in 125s! The first few laps were really hectic, there were guys bashing fairings and I just tried to stay out of the way. When I got my chance to get through I took it and from there I just focused on setting my pace. Jorge rode brilliantly - it wasn't an easy race by any means, especially at the start. Over the first few laps I was struggling a bit for grip but then the tyres got up to temperature and improved. We knew we had a pretty good package for the race but obviously we couldn't be sure that things would go as well as that. I want to say thanks to everybody at Ducati for a great job, my team, the guys at Bridgestone... Thanks everybody."
r som fattigteamen JiR och LCR har eftersom Dovi och RdP körde mycket fortare.
men om han körde -07:an så beror det säkert på hans stora trygghetsbehov. Pedrosa fick väl ta ansvaret som försteförare och köra -08:an trots att den ännu inte är bättre än -07:an. Detta för att Honda ska ha en titelchans i år, -07:an är förstås chanslös i långa loppet och kör de inte -08:an ja då har de ju gett upp. Med Pedrosa är ju hoppet, vilken jäkla raketstart han gjorde! Om inte Rossi hållit uppe honom så länge kanske han kunnat utmanat Lorenzo i slutskedet.
