Top step of the podium for Arai!
DANI PEDROSA, REPSOL HONDA
Race Position: First Championship Position: Second
“IT’S AN UNBELIEVABLE FEELING!”
Dani Pedrosa took an emphatic runaway win at Mugello, and the result elevates Pedrosa to second in the MotoGP World Championship behind Jorge Lorenzo. On his way to the chequered flag Pedrosa set the 11 fastest laps of the race and his best lap, a new race lap record of 1m 49.531, was 0.762 seconds clear of his nearest rival. Pedrosa nearly made it look easy on his RC212V, converting pole position into a lead at the first corner, and the 24-year-old Spaniard was never headed for the entire 23-lap race. The gap stretched to as much as eight seconds before Pedrosa began to ease back slightly and control the pace. He crossed the line four seconds clear of Lorenzo to record the ninth MotoGP win of his career and his 32nd in all classes of Grand Prix racing.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to win again and I’m so happy for myself and the Repsol Honda Team. We’ve been working really hard and we had some problems through the winter and in the first races, so I’m really delighted with this victory, especially after leading at Jerez for so long but not quite making it. It looks like we are back near where we need to be and the team deserves the victory. I had a great feeling on the bike today, especially at the beginning section of the race and I could open up a gap. To be honest I didn’t see who was behind me, I just looked for the gap on my pit board and tried to ride consistently. It’s important that we are competitive now because we have one weekend off and then three races in a row. The next race is at Silverstone, which is a legendary track so I hope that we can match this kind of performance there – and also that this part of England has better weather! I also want to thank the fans here for pushing for Valentino because he’s having a hard time and everyone in the paddock wishes him well.”
NICKY HAYDEN, MARLBORO DUCATI
Race Position: DNF Championship Position: Fifth
“THAT ONE WAS ON ME”
Nicky Hayden didn’t make the best of starts from fourth on the grid and his race ended on the sixth lap when he was pushing to make up ground, running wide and sliding from his Ducati GP10 into the gravel. A real shame, because he’d been looking competitive and strong all weekend, building on his recent good form. As ever, the Kentucky kid was honest and pragmatic about his performance…
“I screwed the start up and got beat up into turn one but I was able to make a couple of passes and thought I could fight for it. My rhythm wasn’t that good and I was just trying to make up too much time into that downhill corner. It was a rider error and it’s a bummer because it’s the team’s home race and they’ve all worked really hard. All I can say is I’m sorry – that one was on me. I’m completely okay so that’s the good thing but it still hurts. Thankfully there are still a lot of races to go.”
COLIN EDWARDS, MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3
Race Position: Thirteenth Championship Position: Eleventh
“I’M REALLY DISAPPOINTED AND A BIT MYSTIFIED”
Colin Edwards finished in 13th place despite having to race in extremely difficult circumstances. Edwards suffered a mystery fatigue issue in the morning warm-up session and it was obvious from the start of the race that his physical condition would prevent him from showing his true potential, as he dropped from fifth to 11th. Despite feeling well below his best, Edwards rode to the flag to collect three valuable points.
“I’m really disappointed and a bit mystified because I’ve felt good all weekend and we got the bike working really well again after we switched back to the setting we had at Mugello last year. But it was a struggle from the off and I didn’t feel great at all. The bike was working well. It goes round the corner good, it brakes good and has good traction but I can’t ride in that condition. I felt fatigued really early in the race and was really struggling to change direction with the bike. And at this track you have got a lot of fast changes of direction that are crucial to help you flow and set good times. I’ve had a bit of an arm pump issue all weekend for the first time in my career and needed quite a few injections to ease that. But I was way below my best physical condition and not just because of that. All I can do is apologise to Monster Yamaha Tech 3 and I wish I knew what was going on. I’ll try and figure it out and be ready to come out fighting strong in Silverstone.”
HIROSHI AOYAMA, INTERWETTEN HONDA
Race Position: Eleventh Championship Position: Thirteenth
“I COULD NOT KEEP MY LAP TIMES…”
Mugello did not run as expected for Hiroshi Aoyama. He finished the race again, as like in Le Mans two weeks ago, on 11th place. The 28 year-old Japanese doesn’t know yet what exactly the problem was this time. He has yet to analyse the data of the race, but he suffered a lack of grip and had problems with the hot conditions. That there is much to come from Aoyama could be seen in the qualifying; the team just hopes that it will all go better at Silverstone.
“The race was not easy for me today. I had a quite good start and was able to go with the group for some laps, but then I didn’t have grip anymore and I could not keep my lap times. It was so hot today and that is exhausting. Many riders crashed. But this time I didn’t make any mistakes; I just hope that next time I can have a better race.”
The next MotoGP round is at the newly revised Silverstone, on the 20th June.
For more information on Arai Helmets please visit www.whyarai.co.uk
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