Casey Stoner: "We got reasonably lucky today with the crash - my right ankle is a little sore but it's nothing major. I hadn't had any warnings from the front end that it was going to try and flick me off down there so I really wasn't ready for it. At that point of the circuit the bike isn't at maximum lean and you don't normally expect to lose the front, so I certainly didn't see it coming and I didn't even have chance to dig my knee in and try to save it. It was a bit strange but anyway sometimes it goes like that and there are plenty of positives to take from today. This morning we were struggling with front tyre life but we completely changed the bike around for the afternoon, fixed that particular problem before then focusing on making the bike faster and more comfortable to ride. We managed to do that and the bike was working really well."
Valentino Rossi: “For sure I’m not happy after today’s practice! This afternoon we tried some modifications to the setting and we decided to try a softer set-up, but things didn’t work how we hoped and we couldn’t improve our time. In the fast corners I wasn’t fast enough, and I was always a little bit wide. This afternoon I couldn’t ride how I wanted to. Obviously this afternoon’s choice is not the right way for us at this circuit and therefore tomorrow morning we will return to this morning’s set-up and try to close the gap to Casey. I didn’t try the new electronics today and actually at the moment it’s more likely that we won’t this weekend, but I did try some different Bridgestone tyres and we found one which we think will be okay for the race. I am confident that our potential is more than today so we will do our best to improve tomorrow.”
Colin Edwards: “This morning I went out and I didn’t have a lot of feeling from the front. I thought it was a small issue with grip so we played around with the bike and it didn’t really get any better. The feeling I’m always looking for just wasn’t there and I’m a front-end guy. I just couldn’t get the front to gel with me. I tried a different front tyre this afternoon - a harder one – and that felt better but it is something that we never use. This place is so hard on front tyres and what we normally use race after race wouldn’t have the durability, so Michelin have had to improvise a little bit and it was just a feeling that I’m not used to. I went out there and got going and did a couple of good laps and the next thing I crashed. I braked for the last corner and that was it. You know when you do something wrong because when you get in they’re too hot and your eyes bulge out, you know you are not going to make it. But I didn’t even do that. I just cruised into the corner like normal and I was down. I had zero warning. Michelin and the team came up with some ideas to try and create some more front feel and I went out on the spare bike and at the end I wasn’t even really pushing and I did a 22 and it seemed easy because I had some feel. So a big thanks to Michelin and my guys for the improvements we found. Honestly though this is the best package I’ve ever rolled out of the truck on a Friday at this circuit. I normally come here and it is a nightmare for me to get the bike working. But today it worked like a charm and Michelin have done a great job with the rear tyres. They are awesome, so with more feel now from the front I’m really confident."
Dani Pedrosa: “This morning we started out working on set-up and tyre choice, as usual. I had a good feeling and the tyres were working well with a track temperature of 29 degrees. In the afternoon I crashed at Turn 12, maybe because I braked too late, but the crash was without any real consequence. After that I used my second bike but I couldn’t find the same feeling, so I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted. Tomorrow we will try to improve our settings and do some longer runs on tyres. We have to see how hot it will be, because the track temperature can get very hot here, this afternoon it was already more than 40 degrees.”

Nicky Hayden: "Today was pretty average, really. I certainly hoped to be nearer the top in both sessions. We made some little improvements this afternoon, got the bike to steer a bit better, and dropped the lap time a bit which helped, but we’re still down in eighth. It’s a short little lap here, so a couple of tenths is a lot. We’ve got a couple of ideas to improve tomorrow, but it’s not easy to figure out how we’re going to get down to where we need to be. We need to find a big chunk from somewhere. In the past I’ve had some good results here but it’s a track where I always struggle a bit on the first day and then pull it together, so let’s see if we can’t do the same this year. Lap time-wise we’re already quite a bit quicker than last year which we have been everywhere, in fact I’ve already gone faster than I qualified last year.”

James Toseland: “It is quite a difficult track to learn and really technical. It is one of those tracks where it is blind in a lot of places and you need to keep on the throttle. So you really need to know where you're going. We have tried a lot of things today, which has been interesting and right at the end I finally found a bit of rhythm in the 23s but then the chequered flag came out. We’ve been working between two settings to see which one is more comfortable and now at least we know the direction to go in to make the bike more rideable. It looks a lot worse on paper than it is and I’m still upbeat. I’m bottom of the list but at the end I saw a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, so fingers crossed it will be dry tomorrow. The problem is we are struggling to find the set-up for the shorter bike. It is much easier to find with the longer bike but that one has a few issues. With the shorter bike it is the same problem as before, there is too much weight transition on that bike under braking and I’ve not got much feel from the rear tyre on the entry. The crash on the third lap this morning put me off a bit. That was my mistake. I just touched the white line going into that left-hander and it just lost traction as I got back onto the tarmac and down I went. Both of my arms are black and blue because the stones are quite big in the gravel. I went in backwards and dug my arms in a bit and it has really battered them.”

Loris Capirossi: “First of all I want to say I’m really sorry to the whole team, because today I have had to fight with myself as well as the bike due to my condition still being not as good as it could be - but I am happy to be here and happy to be fighting to get back to fitness. The thing that I want is to have is my condition 100% because the bike is not too bad here and it is working very well around this track. The team have made a really good job and they improved the bike a lot from this morning. We have to keep working in the same way tomorrow and I am sure we can still be more competitive!”

Chris Vermeulen: “It has not been a good day overall even though we did make a good start this morning and the bike worked well straight out of the box. We only used one set of tyres in the morning session and the durability seemed really good while the track was cooler. This afternoon it was much warmer, but we seemed to go nowhere with the bike. We tried a few things but still went back to the same setting as we had this morning. We just couldn’t seem to make it better so we have a lot of work to do overnight to make it happen tomorrow.”

Jorge Lorenzo: “I feel like I have a lot of confidence here compared to the last few races, and this is a nice feeling because it’s enabling me to ride much more aggressively. We had some problems with the rear grip this morning and I was happy about the improvements that we made this afternoon, but the bike setting is still not perfect and I feel like we should be going faster. The problem is that, although I was in fifth place this afternoon, the gap to Stoner in front is very big and it’s hard for us to understand how he is going so much faster than us! From this it is clear, even though I have a good feeling, that the bike is not performing exactly as it should and therefore we need to try to improve our package more. Of course I also need to keep building my confidence and improving my riding as I get more used to a MotoGP bike at this track. I hope that tomorrow we can close the gap to the front.”

Anthony West: "We had some problems with braking stability this morning, but the biggest problem was the crash right at the end of the session. When I hit the gravel trap something must have dug in, because I started tumbling and that's what damaged my back. It was a bit painful during the afternoon session, especially through the high-speed sections where you need to use your bodyweight to get the bike to change direction. We made some definite improvements to the bike this afternoon, especially with the braking stability. Through some sections of the track it's working really well, but we still need to look at improving drive out of the turns; specifically at the last corner which leads onto the start finish straight. I will get some treatment on my back tonight, and I'm pretty sure it won't be an issue tomorrow. This track is really difficult to pass at, so qualifying in the top ten is essential tomorrow afternoon."
Marco Melandri: "From this morning we managed to improve the bike in the fast sections of the track although in the slow parts we're still not competitive. We have to work mainly in T1 and T2 because I'm struggling to get the bike to turn in there. Hopefully the weather stays stable over the next two days, be it wet or dry, so that we can get lots of work in on corner entry."