Quotes of the day – Sunday, Valencia
Added on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Quotes of the day – Sunday, Valencia
Spanish hero and hometown victor Dani Pedrosa, commenting on his second victory of the season this afternoon, said:”I’m very happy with this win because I really wanted it. All through the week I was thinking only about this race. In practice we struggled a lot, but the team did a great job and I want to thank them for the job they did. Also to all the fans that came to the track, they supported us and it’s unbelievable. I think they enjoyed the race.
“With Casey out of the race it was easier, but in the end we had a great race so thanks again to everyone around me.
“It’s been a tough season. Third place is good, but we are far off the top two, or even top three sometimes, so we will analyse that and work harder for next year.” He concluded.
Reflecting on what might have been, after a weekend-ending warm-up incident, Casey Stoner commented: “Obviously this is a frustrating and disappointing way to finish the season. There have been plenty of highs and lows throughout the year and we have ended on a low, but with another lesson learnt for next season.
“We have had this strategy for two years and not had a problem until today so I guess it is better it happened here than in the first race of next season in Qatar! The important thing is that after back-to-back wins in Australia and Malaysia we have shown our pace here at Valencia and we know we have everything in place to be competitive next season if we do the job right over the winter. Now I am looking forward to working on the bike over the next three days and then spending a couple of months building up my physical fitness, which I haven’t been able to dedicate myself 100% to for such a long time.” He added.
“We know it will be hard next year but we are confident that we can be back and fighting again. I want to give my personal thanks to everybody in the team - to Filippo (Preziosi, Ducati Corse Technical Director) and everybody at Ducati Corse for giving me a bike that was competitive even when I wasn’t and for working to make sure it was firing on all cylinders when I came back. I also want to thank Livio Suppo (Team Manager), who is leaving the team, for all the support he has given me since I joined Ducati and especially during the difficult moments this season.”
After contesting his first MotoGP outing for Yamaha, Ben Spies said: “It was pretty good. I actually got a better start than I expected but in the first few laps I got shuffled around and bullied a little bit. I guessed that would be the case as I haven’t figured out how to get comfortable quickly on the tyres. Eventually I slowly picked off some people with some smart passes, as I didn’t want to mess up anyone else’s championship position and I wanted to be clean, but still ride as hard as I could.
“I saw Dovizioso and then I was thinking about him and Colin (Edwards) and their battle and I managed to get past him. Then I kept my head down and tried to keep the laps fast and I recorded my best time on the last lap, so it was good. I didn’t do anything stupid and stack it up, it was a good weekend and we got a top ten.
“This result is like winning a World Superbike race for me in terms of the amount of satisfaction it has given me. These are the fastest guys in the world.” He added.
