A breakaway plan from Dani Pedrosa worked to perfection in the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya, as he took the holeshot at his home race and never looked back. The win ended a long premier class run without a local winner in Barcelona, stretching back to 1999 and a popular triumph for Alex Criville.

Keen to avoid a battle between himself and predicted podium finishers Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, the Repsol Honda rider burst out of the blocks and set about putting space between himself and the rest of the field. A new circuit record was made by Pedrosa by the second lap, and he kept the pace up throughout the 25 lap race.

A fourth consecutive win proved a wish too far for Fiat Yamaha star Rossi, who nonetheless fulfilled expectations by fighting his way up from ninth on the grid. A penultimate lap slipstream of Stoner gave him second place, a sixth consecutive podium and, most importantly, the advantage necessary to maintain the lead in the MotoGP World Championship.

The race was littered with retirements at the midway point, with Alex de Angelis, Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet all crashing out in quick succession. Toni Elias had just a few laps earlier been shown the black flag for not obeying an order for a ride-through penalty.

Catalunya MotoGP finishing order :

Peerless Pedrosa piles on the pressure

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa stormed to a stunning runaway victory at Catalunya today, cheered all the way by more than 113,000 adoring fans. The Spaniard’s start-to-finish win was his second of the year and completed a hat-trick of home-tarmac successes at Valencia last November, Jerez in March and now Catalunya. Team-mate Nicky Hayden had another tough one, coming in eighth after running sixth.

Pedrosa rode a perfect race, showing matchless speed and relentless pace that put him 0.658 seconds ahead after the first lap, 3.9 seconds in front at one-quarter distance and 7.2 seconds ahead midway through the race. He had stretched his advantage to more than eight seconds before he eased off, crossing the line 2.8 seconds ahead of Valentino Rossi. Pedrosa’s 29th GP win (all achieved on Honda machinery) closes the points gap on series leader Rossi to just seven points as the 18-race 2008 MotoGP series approaches half-distance. Hayden had an altogether more difficult afternoon. The American looked strong in the early stages but set-up issues prevented him from holding a consistent fast pace.

Today’s record crowd showed their enthusiasm for MotoGP by making it into the track despite traffic jams caused by a transport strike.

Dani Pedrosa, race winner: “I’m very happy about this win, my thanks to all the people around me. Today was also very important for the championship, I am now five points closer to the lead, but there are still many races ahead of us, so we need to keep pushing and be consistent. We had a few issues in practice here, so my team was thinking what they could do and they made a small adjustment before the race that improved the bike and helped me to run that pace. Once again, a big thanks to them. I couldn’t believe the fans, it seems like every year there are more and more. I’m very happy they were here because I know it was difficult to get into the track today. I was all alone, pushing to go faster and faster and I could see everyone cheering me on. At one point I lost a bit of concentration, but I got my focus back and kept pushing. Now we have two days of tests which will be very important for the next few races.”

Nicky Hayden, 8th: “We knew the race was going to be tough. Our bike has worked quite well when we had grip but something with the set-up right now we’re not getting the tyre life we need. It was okay in the beginning but I couldn’t maintain the pace. Something in the set-up is hurting the tyre life, it’s quite frustrating. We were in there early and thought we might be on for a good result and then we lost touch and went backward. The rear brake went out towards the end which didn’t help things. Eighth place is not what we want. We’ve got a really important two days of testing which we need. I’m certainly looking forward to it, hopefully we can get a couple of things sorted out.” “That was a fantastic job from Dani. It’s been a very exciting day for us, everybody in the team, from riders to mechanics, has done a good job. Thanks also to everyone who supports us, like Michelin whose tyres were so consistent today. This is a very tough season, so we will keep fighting and working hard. Nicky had a difficult race, we are now going to sit down and see what happened. Next we have two days of tests during which we will try the pneumaticvalve- spring engine as well as working on other aspects of the machine. When we try the engine we will be looking for overall machine performance, not just straight-line performance.”

Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager: “That was a fantastic job from Dani. It’s been a very exciting day for us, everybody in the team, from riders to mechanics, has done a good job. Thanks also to everyone who supports us, like Michelin whose tyres were so consistent today. This is a very tough season, so we will keep fighting and working hard. Nicky had a difficult race, we are now going to sit down and see what happened. Next we have two days of tests during which we will try the pneumatic-valve-spring engine as well as working on other aspects of the machine. When we try the engine we will be looking for overall machine performance, not just straight-line performance.”

Stoner picks up another podium in Catalunya, Melandri 11th

Casey Stoner picked up his second podium in seven days at Barcelona after a hard fought battle with Valentino Rossi for second place in the Grand Prix of Catalunya. Stoner once again showed the class and determination that make him the reigning MotoGP World Champion as he came through a severe test in the most demanding of circumstances.

Stoner, good to see his back

Despite not feeling as comfortable with his bike as he had done during practice, Stoner carried the fight to Rossi until the final lap, after the pair lost touch with Dani Pedrosa in an electric start to the race by the Spaniard.

Stoner was unable to triumph in the battle with the Italian but third place was enough for another precious podium that brings him to within two points of third in the overall championship standings.

Marco Melandri was unable to find a good feeling or set-up for his Desmosedici GP8 all weekend and the Italian could manage no higher than an eleventh place finish.

Casey Stoner, 3rd: "Looking at the race set-up from yesterday we were confident that we could do some pretty good times today and I felt it was a race we could win but for some reason from the first lap I kept losing the rear on entry into the corners. That made me lose confidence because at this circuit there are a lot of places where you need to brake and enter at the same time so I missed a lot of braking markers, made some mistakes and lost too much ground to Dani. I managed to work a way around it and in the last part of the race we started to do some reasonable lap times again, but at at that point it was a straight battle with Valentino. There was some pretty close passing with him, at times I could almost feel him next to me, but I knew there were some sections where under normal circumstances I could have been faster. Unfortunately when you are racing somebody of that quality you need everything to be working well and that wasn't the case for us today. It hasn't been a good day and I wasn't too pleased with the way I rode but at the end of the day you can't complain too much about a podium. Now we've got an important test to work out why we had this problem today."

Marco Melandri, 11th: "It's fair to say that things went as well as could be expected after practice. I got a decent start considering how far back I was and ended the first lap in ninth or tenth place, but I couldn't hold on to it. There wasn't much I could do because I was losing so much time in the long corners and it was easy for the other riders to pass me. Now we have two days of tests to see if we can take any steps forward but we need to make a massive change. We'll keep trying."

Filippo Preziosi, General Director: "It was a good race to watch because Casey never gave up, even when Valentino passed him. He recovered, got the position back, kept his pace high and even produced two of his best splits on the final lap. Even though he finished third he once again showed his great determination and desire to keep fighting until the finish line. Casey has nothing to prove - you only have to look at what he did in qualifying yesterday. It shows that we have to keep working on our bike and make sure it is in the right shape to allow Casey to use his outstanding talent in race conditions. We're not far off but we have to make that small step to be at our maximum. Marco is clearly in a difficult situation. There are a lot of things to work on - some problems have been ironed out but obviously there are plenty that haven't."

Vermeulen fights back as Capirossi suffers cruel blow

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer Chris Vermeulen raced to a close seventh place finish at the Catalan Grand Prix near Barcelona today, as team-mate Loris Capirossi’s race came to an abrupt end when another rider crashed into him.

Vermeulen got a solid start from the third row of the grid, but was hit on the first lap by Alex de Angelis and relegated down to 14th place. He fought his way back through the field and was closing in on sixth place on the last lap, missing out on a top-six finish by 0.066 seconds at the chequered flag.

Capirossi made a good start from 12th and was up into eighth place by lap two, before disaster struck for the experienced Italian on the 11th lap. Capirossi was hit from behind by - also by de Angelis - causing him to crash at high speed and injure his hand in the process. He was immediately taken the trackside clinic where he was found to have a dislocated fracture of the fifth right metacarpus and a deep wound with loss of skin to his fifth right finger. He will not be able to ride in tomorrow’s test, but hopes to be back to fitness as soon as possible.

A record-breaking crowd at the Circuit de Catalunya of over 113,000 enjoyed warm sunshine and a comprehensive start to finish victory by local hero Dani Pedrosa on his factory Honda. Valentino Rossi on his Bridgestone-shod Yamaha was second and stays on top of the World Championship classification.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will now stay in Catalunya for a two-day test, when Vermeulen will be joined by Team Test Rider Nobuatsu Aoki. The team will next be in competitive action at its ‘home’ Grand Prix at Donington Park in England on Sunday 22nd June.

They looked set to a good result till Capirossi got taken out.

Chris Vermeulen: “I made a reasonable start and had good first and second corners, but then I was hit by de Angelis and I lost few positions. I got myself back together but with everybody being so quick and close on lap-times it made it very difficult to pass. I got through the field and up to seventh, but I feel if I had had a better start I could have been in the top-five. I really want to pass on a lot of thanks to the team because they gave me a great bike for here and it was very consistent all weekend. I have to work on my qualifying and there is still a little area of the bike where we are struggling with grip and the way it uses the tyre, so hopefully in the next two days of testing we can work on that. I hope Loris is going to be alright soon, because he is a big part to our development and I wish him all the best.”

Loris Capirossi: “It has been a really bad end to the weekend, because I felt that everything was working well on the bike and I felt good. I think I could have fought with Chris and James Toseland, but de Angelis tried a bit too hard and put me out of the race. But this is racing and sometimes things like this happen. Now I have to be careful because I have an injury and it will not be so easy for me to recover for the two races in one week. We will see, but I will certainly try to recover as quickly as I can!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager: “MotoGP is not an easy sport but we weren’t done any favours today! When de Angelis rammed Loris off the track in turn three the result was a fracture of his right hand. The dislocated fracture has been put back into position very skilfully by Dr. Costa, and the bone has been set in a cast. The normal recovery time for that injury is some weeks, but Loris seems keen to try and be fit for Donington in 12 days time. Whether that is realistic or not, the next few days will tell! Loris gave everything – as always – and deserved a lot better for all his efforts.

“Chris rode a very strong race after a difficult first lap that saw him a long way down the field. His recovery into the top-10 was excellent and with a better start he had the pace today to fight for fifth. Unfortunately the guys at the front had more pace than us and as we have said in recent weeks it is important to try and improve the bike’s performance over race distance.

“Clearly Loris won’t be able to test here over the next two days, so his duties will now be undertaken by Nobuatsu, and Chris’s crew and the factory will be evaluating all the possibilities of getting the GSV-R as competitive as we can possibly make it for Donington and Assen in a couple of weeks time.”

Rossi races through the field to take valuable Montmelo podium

Valentino Rossi put yesterday's poor qualifying behind him today with a characteristic charge through the field from ninth on the grid to take second in the Grand Prix of Catalunya. By the time Rossi made it through the pack the race-winner Dani Pedrosa was already some way off in front, but Rossi had a lively battle with Casey Stoner over the last few laps, a replay of last year's race but with the Italian prevailing this time.

Rossi and Stoner fought for 2nd till the end.

After some hard work by his team and engineers overnight, it was clear from this morning's warm-up that Rossi was in better shape and the Italian began his race with the podium as his target. Starting form ninth, he gained one place on the first lap when he passed James Toseland and then made his way steadily through the field, out-braking several riders into turn one on consecutive laps and eventually passing first Andrea Dovizioso and then Stoner to take second on lap nine. Rossi tried to leave Stoner behind but the Australian remained in touch and passed him back on lap 17, sparking an entertaining battle for second spot over the closing stages of the race. Rossi eventually made the decisive move at the start of the penultimate lap and held on to cross the line just over half a second ahead of his rival, with Pedrosa 2.806 seconds in front.

An important 20-point haul sees Rossi hang on to his championship lead, seven points ahead of Pedrosa, whilst Lorenzo is still just ahead of Stoner in third despite having to miss today's race while he recovers from Friday's crash. It was another double top-six finish for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team meanwhile, with Colin Edwards and James Toseland finishing in their grid spots of fifth and sixth.

Needs no caption!

Davide Brivio Team Manager; "We're very happy about this result today because we struggled a lot over the weekend. The team and the engineers did a great job however to find a way to improve the setting in such a short amount of time, and we could see from the warm-up this morning that we had a chance to be competitive. Of course our starting position left us with a hard job to do and, with Pedrosa as fast as he was today, we are just happy to have taken 20 points! We only gave away five and the championship is long; our target is to be on the podium every time and today we've done that. Tomorrow we have a test and we will analyse the data from this weekend and try to learn more about our Yamaha-Bridgestone package, so that we can try to go one better in Donington. It was sad to make today's race with half of our team missing and one side of the garage empty, and on behalf of all the team I would like to wish Jorge all the best and we look forward to having him back very soon."

Masahiko Nakajima Team Director; "This is a satisfying result for all of the team and Yamaha staff because we had a problem to find the right set-up here all weekend. Last night the engineers were working until midnight to try to fix the problem and their hard work paid off because the bike felt much better this morning. Of course we're always disappointed not to win but in the circumstances this is a very good result for us."

Jorge Lorenzo on the mend after another day's rest

Two days after the accident that forced him to miss today's Catalan Grand Prix at Montmelo, Jorge Lorenzo's recovery is progressing well at the Institut Dexues in Barcelona. The 21-year-old sustained head trauma and damage to his right hand in Friday's crash but is improving, although Dr. Xavier Mir confirmed tonight that he will need a small skin graft to replace the skin he has lost on his hand.

"After further observation we are pleased to say that the cranial trauma that Jorge suffered on Friday has improved without any further complications," commented the Doctor. "This still needs to be verified with another CAT scan, however, and for this reason we have moved Jorge to another part of the hospital this afternoon. Regarding other injuries, we have evaluated the abrasion on his right hand and we can confirm that he has more than two centimetres of skin missing from his fourth finger. For this reason we have decided that it will be necessary to make a skin graft, which will probably take place tomorrow morning."

Top six finish for both Tech3 riders

Colin Edwards and James Toseland handed the Tech 3 Yamaha squad a well deserved second successive double top six finish in today's Catalunya MotoGP race.

A fantastic start thrust Edwards right into the heat of the battle for second in the early laps as he pursued reigning world champion Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso. He managed to hold off Valentino Rossi until lap eight, and proving he is one of the most consistent performers in 2008, he comfortably scored a third successive top five finish. Fifth place equalled his previous best result at the Montmelo circuit as the Texan maintained his best start to a season in his MotoGP career.

James Toseland treated a record crowd of 113,150 to another stunning exhibition of overtaking after he dropped to 11th on lap eight. Once he'd got comfortable with a revised front-end setting, Toseland passed Chris Vermeulen, Nicky Hayden, Alex de Angelis and Loris Capirossi. Only Valentino Rossi made more passes in the 25-lap encounter, and Toseland's fourth top six finish in just seven races drew special praise from the seven-times world champion, who has been impressed with the British rider's rapid progress in his rookie campaign.

The Tech 3 riders were there or there abouts!

Colin Edwards 5th +16.426; "I got a fantastic start and thought 'brilliant here we go.' But from the second corner I had a problem and to be honest we are scratching our heads a little bit. I struggled because early on I was doing low 43s but then I just couldn't maintain that pace. I'd throw the bike in on the brakes but it would be sideways and I found myself having to change my style like I did in Mugello to help. I'd stop it hard on the brakes, turn it into the corner and then pick it up to accelerate, but in some places where I would normally use second gear I was using third to baby it out of the corners. I did everything I could possibly do too hang in with the group but Andrea just seemed to have a bit more grip than me on the rear. He was able to pull away a little bit on every lap. I could catch him on the brakes but then I'd lose that crucial bit of time on the exit. What we ran in the warm-up was going to be too soft for the race with the temperature but I'm still happy with fifth. It's one of the best results I've had here and now we go to Donington and Assen. They are two tracks I love and I'm sure I'm going to be fighting for the podium again. We kept third in the team championship, which is great for the Tech 3 team, Yamaha and Michelin.

James Toseland 6th +21.482; "I'm a little bit mad with myself because like in Mugello, I believe there was a fourth here. I got an okay start and was about seventh but Valentino came by in the first corner. It was a clean move but he left it late, so we were side-by-side going in and there was no way I could turn in because he was there. There was nothing wrong with the pass but I had to go straight on and that lost me the gap. Whether you are doing the same times as the rest of them or not, you can only pull back small amounts of time. We changed the bike this morning and it took a couple of laps to get used to the feel of it. I'd been running soft tyres most of the weekend doing good lap times but going a bit harder for the race, I just didn't have as much grip at the start and it took me a couple of laps to get used to it and I didn't push it hard enough. At this point I'm content with where I am but I'm getting impatient because I feel I can do better, so that's why I'm a bit disappointed with sixth. If I finish sixth and know I couldn't do anymore I'm happy, but now I feel there is more in the bag. But we have really got this new setting working well and it will be a really good package at Donington where I can't wait to go. It's my first home Grand Prix and it feels a long time since I've been to a track I know. I'm getting regular top six finishes but the target at Donington will be to finish much higher and I'm confident with Tech 3, Yamaha and Michelin I can do it."

Herve Poncharal Team Manager; "After the warm-up, if somebody said we would be fifth and sixth I'd have said we were looking for better based on practice, but looking at the race that was a very positive result and I'm very happy. Once again Colin and James put in their maximum effort and both have finished in the top six. Dani was on another planet today so congratulations to Michelin, but in the early laps Colin was able to run a strong pace and was right in contention, but at one stage he decided to secure a well deserved fifth place. James lost quite a lot of ground at the start but as usual, once he found his pace he was as quick as the group in front of him and was able to fight his way back. Mugello and Barcelona are two very difficult tracks but Colin and James have scored top six finishes in both, so a big thanks to Yamaha and Michelin. We have scored another big haul of points to keep Tech 3 third in the team world championship, and that is a great achievement after seven races. Now we go to James' home race with a strong and positive feeling, confident we can continue this good run of results. Donington and Assen are also good tracks for Colin, so we have a lot to look forward to."

Great race for Andrea Dovizioso with a fine 4th place at the Catalan GP

The Spanish weekend ended in satisfaction for the JiR Team Scot squad. The huge amount of work done by the team during the previous days brought a superb final result of a fighting fourth place for the silver Honda in a great race, the same result as he did in first race of the year in Qatar. In the race Andrea showed a high degree of maturity against the best riders in the world. Fast straight away from the third row of the grid, Andrea was in second position at the end of lap one, just behind Dani Pedrosa who began to pull away leaving the other riders behind. Andrea found himself with Stoner, Rossi and Edwards with all the riders covered by just one second, but soon the group spread out with half the race still to go and with the final result still in doubt. The big event for Andrea in the race was when Valentino Rossi made a pass on Casey Stoner, which left Andrea half-a-second behind, but Andrea in turn put a gap into Colin Edwards to keep a safe fourth place. For JiR Team Scot this was an important result in terms of the World Championship ranking which now shows Andrea in sixth position.

Gianluca Montiron – Director: “Today’s result is very positive for us. We were able to complete the task we had set ourselves which was to get some good points for the World Championship. My congratulations to the team, who put Andrea in a position to do the very maximum and congratulations to Andrea who was able to maintain the pace of the leaders during the whole race. He is quietly gaining positions in the World Championship and the next two races at Donington and Assen are very important. He’s getting so much more experience and today in Spain he raced with the leaders. As we reach the half-way point in the series we want to be inside the top five in the championship.”

Andrea Dovizioso – 7th, 1’42”.990: “This was a great race which gave me a lot of satisfaction. Since practice I tested many starts to be ready to go when the red lights went off which is why I had such a good start so I was able to be fast to be able to gain some positions. This is why at the end of lap one I was second. Dani was incredibly fast today, but I was able to stay with Valentino and Casey and was able to keep that pace. The level of competition was very high but when Vale passed Stoner I lost half a second and sadly I was not able to regain this time. Fourth is the same result as Qatar, but the value of this race is different: that was my first MotoGP race but now I have more experience, so this is why I’m looking at improved race-by race results. If I hadn’t lost that half-second I could have fought for the podium and the final satisfaction could have been even bigger. Either way, I’m very happy as even when I was alone I was able to maintain a good rhythm and this is good. I want to thank the team for the excellent technical package we had today!”

Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager: “My compliments to the team who were able to work very well especially when it was necessary to be strong and determined. We knew we could achieve these results and the good result today is making everybody happy! Andrea was able to use the Technical Package from Honda and Michelin very well indeed and he was fast and consistent even when he was alone, maintaining position in fourth. We are now working hard in this direction and we can do better as this is important for the final World Championship ranking.”

Injured Hoppers fights for top 10

John Hopkins demonstrated true grit and determination today at the Grand Prix of Catalunya to bring his Ninja ZX-RR home in 10th position, despite carrying a back injury sustained in Friday’s practice.

Hopkins got a steady start to the 25-lap race and pushed as hard as possible, despite being unable to move around easily on his race machine, to make up positions around the 4.727km circuit. The 25-year-old Kawasaki pilot settled into a rhythm and circulated on his own for most of the race, riding through the pain barrier, to cross the line with a very creditable top ten finish.

Teammate Anthony West, who set his fastest lap of the entire weekend in the opening stages, endured a hard, race long fight with Marco Melandri to finish in a points-scoring 12th position.

The Australian switched positions with Melandri throughout the race in a nail-biting battle, but despite his persistence the 26-year-old was just beaten to the flag. West was upbeat about the result and he can now look forward to racing at Donington Park, which was where he made his premier class debut aboard the Kawasaki last season.

Depending on his condition, Hopkins will ride during tomorrow’s valuable post-race test to further develop his 800cc Ninja ZX-RR, whilst West will fly to Japan for a two-day test aimed at improving the power delivery of his machine

The Kawasaki riders are still finding it tough...

John Hopkins, 10th: “I’m in a lot of pain right now with my injury and that was a really hard race. I tried to pass a few people at the start, but I got boxed out and I lost some ground. I pushed as hard as I could to stay with the group ahead of me, but the pain set in and I had to really focus on settling into a rhythm. It was then a case of finding a way to ride without moving around too much on the machine to finish the race, and although tenth isn’t where I want to be, in this situation I’m pleased we managed to achieve that. We still have a lot of work to do with the bike, and hopefully we can be in a good condition for the next race in Britain.”

Anthony West, 12th: “I rode as hard as I possibly could today and I fought hard with Marco for the entire race. I passed him into the turns on many occasions, but his machine was a bit stronger on the straights and it just meant I had a lot of work to do each time he came by. The tyre went off a little in the last few laps, which meant I just didn’t quite have enough to re-take him before the finish. I’m happy we had a good race, but we still need to make big improvements to the set-up of the bike. I’m going to Japan for a test where I hope we can try to resolve the rear traction issues I’ve been suffering, then we’ll be back in Europe preparing for Donington Park and, hopefully, we can make another step forwards there.”

Micheal Bartholemy, Kawasaki Competition Manager: “Hopefully this is a new start for us and I am happy that both riders finished the race today, as the last few rounds have been difficult. We need to concentrate on making improvements to the performance of the bike before the next race to provide the riders with the best package possible. Anthony will now spend some time testing in Japan where we have better resources to focus on improving the power delivery of his machine. John rode a hard race today with his injury and we are unsure yet if he’ll be able to complete many laps during tomorrow’s test. I hope he will be fit to ride and we can continue making steps forward, so that we can be even more competitive at Donington Park.”

Elias unlucky in his home Grand Prix, Guintoli 13th

Hard day for the Alice Team on the Montmelò circuit in the seventh MotoGP round. Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli, who started respectively from thirteenth and fifteenth position, had found themselves in the last two positions after the first lap. After eight laps the Spanish rider, who was concentrated in the fight with Melandri, West and his team-mate, has seen the pit-board with the penalty for jump start too late, shown at lap five, and during the ride through he had to stop at the end of the pit lane as he was disqualified. A mistake for the home rider who wanted to do well in front of his own crowd. Also Guintoli hasn’t been so lucky. He lost a lot of time at lap four when he went off track and when he reached West and Melandri, the rear tyre lost a bit of grip not allowing him to overtake them. Tomorrow and Tuesday the Alice Team will participate at the test on the Circuit in Barcelona to prepare for the next Grand Prix scheduled on June 22nd in Donington.

Sergio Verbena – Sylvain Guintoli's track engineer: “Seen the race rhythm we had in yesterday’s practices I expected a little bit more. We can say that without the off track I had, where I lost about six seconds, we could have concluded at least a couple of positions ahead. But these are the races and you pay every single mistake. We will use tomorrow and Tuesday’s test to try different tyres solutions. We believe we can do better from the next round.”

Sylvain Guintoli – 13th: “I am surely not happy on how the race went today. I started really bad, not like the last times, founding my self last after the first lap. Then, trying to overtake Toni, I went off track and I lost a lot of time. I did all I could to catch West and Melandri, but when I reached them, probably because I pushed a lot, my rear tyre didn’t have the same grip in the last two laps. I hope to do well tomorrow and Tuesday to conquer a better position in Donington.”

Toni Elias – Disqualified: “I don’t have any words. I am sorry for the Team and for my fans that have been really good with me in these days. Just a few seconds before the start I went just a bit forward but I didn’t think it was so relevant. In the first laps I was fighting with Marco (Melandri), West and Guintoli and I was too concentrated on the race. When I have seen the pit-board with the penalty sign was too late. Now we have to concentrate in these two days of testing to find some valid solution that will allow us to be competitive in the next race.”

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