[mickey]

Colin Edwards
"I'm really happy so far this weekend. We made big steps with our rain set-up yesterday and then today Michelin brought the tyres I wanted and things were looking good in the dry too. With the qualifying tyre things felt really great once again and I'm seriously happy to be on pole here. This track is known for the left turn down Craner, it's one of the only lefts on the track and you need to have a lot of confidence in that side of the tyre to really attack it. With my second soft tyre I got the left side really warmed up on my out lap and then just gave it everything I had. If you really want pole you have to risk it a little bit; that's what I did today and it paid off! My race pace feels pretty good and it was fairly consistent this afternoon, I need to study the data with my guys now to really know exactly where we are but we're definitely in good shape for tomorrow. Thanks a lot to Michelin and to all my team, they've done a great job so far."

Valentino Rossi
"When the bike and tyres are feeling good this is a fantastic track to ride and now with these new 800s you can use all the best lines, so it's a great feeling. Unfortunately I got a little bit blocked by another rider on my lap and I lost a bit of time, but anyway Colin and I are one and two so this is the most important thing and I want to say well done to Colin. This morning was not brilliant for us but this afternoon things were a lot better and my bike felt very good. Thanks to Michelin because they've brought some good tyres here and they seem to be working well with our bike; we have two good race tyres to choose from for tomorrow. Now let's hope that it stays dry like this for the race!"

Dani Pedrosa 3rd 1m 28.863s
“Today went pretty well and I’m very pleased to be on the front row for the race because this is always important. The practice sessions were ok and stayed dry which meant we could find a good set-up and work up to a fairly consistent race pace, though I had a big moment this morning when the temperature was colder. The qualifying laps at the end of the afternoon session were a little difficult for me and I made a few little mistakes with both qualifiers which may have cost me a shot at pole position. With my second qualifier I tried to do a second fast lap and the time was quite good until the last split when the tyre began to go off – but this was not a big surprise because they’re only designed to do one lap. I hope it stays dry tomorrow but we’ve had the chance to practice in both wet and dry conditions so we should be ready whatever happens with the weather. There are a few riders with a good pace here so it will be an interesting race. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Nicky Hayden 4th 1m 29.025s
“The session went pretty well and fourth is definitely my best qualifying position for a while so I’ve got to be happy with that. It felt good to be fastest this morning too, although I didn’t really improve a lot this afternoon and I’d have liked to have gone a little bit quicker. Also I only improved by two tenths on my second qualifying tyre and you’ve got to do more than that to get on the front row. Regardless, this has been the closest we’ve been for a while and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s race. With a decent start I can at least get in there at the front, see what I’ve been missing and learn some stuff from the boys. So far every race this season they’ve just disappeared after the first corner and I haven’t really learned much, but hopefully tomorrow I can go to school and stick right with them. I’ve felt pretty good straight away this weekend. The chassis changes really have not made a huge amount of difference – we just tried a lot of different stuff in the two days of testing after Barcelona, and not just settings. We took away some of the traction control and now the bike’s working well and seems to suit me better so that I can control it more with the throttle. A really big thanks to the guys on my team for working so hard and making a few changes on the bike to give me a better feeling.”