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It was business as usual in the MotoGP
paddock today, as the bad weather that has become the norm
this season disrupted this afternoon's Qualifying session
ahead of tomorrow's Dutch TT. After a dry session this
morning, when Fiat Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and
Colin Edwards were first and fourth fastest respectively, it
was once again time for the riders to put on their
rain-suits and do battle with the elements in the fight for
grid slots.
It was a less than perfect afternoon for
the Yamaha pair as they both struggled to match their fast
dry pace on the soaking circuit. Both spent most of the
session in the bottom half of the order as they searched for
the right set-up and tyre combination for the difficult
conditions, although Edwards managed to improve things
considerably at the end and put in an excellent final lap to
move up to sixth, on the outside of the second row. Rossi
meanwhile was unable to make such a drastic jump and could
only manage 11th, which will see him start from the middle
of the fourth row. With better weather promised tomorrow
however and both riders boasting a strong race pace in the
dry, the pair are confident of being in the mix tomorrow
when the 26-lap race gets underway at 1400 local time.
Colin Edwards
(Position: 6th;
Time: 1'49.691;
Laps: 24)
"This afternoon was quite difficult, which I think was
pretty obvious, but we were able to salvage something at the
end! I can't say I'm thrilled with my grid position after
how strong we've been recently in qualifying but it could
have been worse. We used pretty much the same setting we had
for the rain in Donington, where things were working good,
and once we'd made some small changes and put a softer tyre
in we were okay. I saw I had one lap left at the end and I
was behind a couple of other riders so I rolled off a little
to give myself some space and then just thought "whatever,
let's give it a try!" I took a few risks, put my head down
and managed to make it round without any problems. Obviously
I would prefer it to be dry tomorrow, in fact the drier and
hotter the better! Our race pace in the dry is quite fast so
if we have the right conditions then I'm feeling confident
about a good race. No mistakes this year!"
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After a dry session this morning, when Fiat Yamaha
Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards
(above) were first and fourth fastest respectively,
it was once again time for the riders to put on
their rain-suits and do battle with the elements in
the fight for grid slots. |
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It was business as usual in the MotoGP paddock
today, as the bad weather that has become the norm
this season disrupted this afternoon's Qualifying
session ahead of tomorrow's Dutch TT. |
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Valentino Rossi
(Position: 11th;
Time: 1'50.392;
Laps: 23)
"For sure today in the wet we had some problems and the
fourth row is not great! Of course in order to fight for the
victory here I would prefer to be nearer the front, as to
win from the fourth row is quite hard! We've given ourselves
a difficult job to do and now I will need to do a perfect
race, with no mistakes from start to finish, in order to
come back towards the front. I'm quite sad about the weather
because I think from the front row I would definitely have
been in a position to try to win tomorrow. As we've proved
before however, we know that it's not impossible to make a
good race from the fourth row! We need to make the right
tyre choice and we need to make a good start, because it's
not so easy to pass people here. Our pace in the dry this
morning was good and luckily we're expecting better weather.
We'll do our best and see how we go."
Davide Brivio, Team Director
"So, neither of our riders is in pole position, which is the
first good thing because it seems at the moment it's
impossible to win from pole! Also Valentino is in much
better shape than last year, when he had to start from last
position with his injury. It is not a disaster; in Mugello
we started from the front row and then we were in eighth on
lap one! Of course Valentino has a hard job to do from the
fourth row but he has the pace in the dry and we know he'll
try as hard as possible to get back up to the front and
fight for the podium. Colin did very well at the end of the
session today in very difficult conditions and he deserves
to be up on the second row like this. He too has a good pace
in the dry and I think we can expect a great race from him
tomorrow. Let's hope we've had the last of the rain and
we'll be fighting tomorrow, we're certainly not going to
give up before the start!"
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