MotoGP: Stoner - 'It was all my fault'

“I was confident today because my bike was fast from Friday practice, and with Jeremy (Burgess) we made a small modification to the front after warm-up to allow me to be a bit faster in some sections, and it worked very well. I lost about half a second getting past Hopkins at the start and Casey was incredibly fast at that stage, like he’d already done ten laps! For a short time I was worried but then, after two laps, I understood that my bike was working very well and that I was fast enough to try to catch him. I had closed a little bit already and gradually the red bike was becoming a bit bigger in front of me, and I think this is when he started to push harder and made his mistake. I was anticipating a very hard battle if I did catch him, so when I saw the red bike slide out I could hardly believe it – this made things a lot! easier for me! After that I just enjoyed riding my bike; my Bridgestone tyres worked very well until the end and my M1 felt very good.

"Of course I can’t count this as a complete victory because Casey fell, and I am sorry for him, but this is racing and I have to be happy with this result. We are 50 points clear which is a lot and I am very excited to be going to Misano in this situation. However we know that 50 points is still not always enough when you have someone as strong as Casey and so we won’t relax. Now we have two days of testing and we will try some new electronics in order to help me open the throttle earlier and also, of course, test some Bridgestone tyres.”

Tony Elias - D'Antin Ducati - 2nd

"I am very happy by my performance. Since Germany we have improved a lot also thanks to the new technical material received by Ducati. I also thought I could have done a podium in Laguna Seca but I committed a mistake and I couldn't make it. Today everything went in the right direction. I am sure that we can maintain the same level for the rest of the season. I heard rumors that wanted me in Superbike next season: I never spoke to anybody in Superbike and I want to remain in MotoGP for many more years. I am happy to work in the Alice Team and with the Pramac Racing structure. If things will go well in this final part of the season I don't see why I should change Team."

Loris Capirossi - Suzuki - 3rd

"I want to say what a fantastic day this is for me today! After the injury in Barcelona I have not had the opportunity to go quick due to my condition, but all the people around me - including the whole team and Suzuki - stayed really close to me and gave me great support so I am really happy to pay them back with this podium - it actually feels more like a win for me because it means so much! After the break following Laguna, I was able to get some rest and start training again to get myself back in the best condition, and although I am still not 100% I am nearly there and I was able to challenge all weekend. My dream this weekend was to fight for a podium, after Friday I felt I could do that and today I started with a good focus to do my best. This result is for all the team and everybody working with me, because when we make a great result I am really happy, and today I am certainly really happy!"

Shinya Nakano - Honda - 4th

"We took another step forward with the new bike today although I have to say that it has not been easy to get this result. We came to Brno without any test data but the team did a great job with the set-up. I want to thank Honda and Team Gresini for giving me the chance to ride this bike, which represents a great opportunity for me to improve on the results we've managed so far. I'm just disappointed that I lost positions at the start because I made contact with another rider but at the same time satisfied to have recovered and finished the race in fourth -- a result I can be pleased with."

Anthony West - Kawasaki - 5th

"To finish fifth is a really great feeling and it just shows exactly what we are capable of achieving. I got a good start to the race, but I dropped down to sixth after a few laps and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fight back, especially after not having much dry time on the bike here. However, my confidence grew as we went on and I was able to catch up with John and pass him for fourth at the halfway point. The grip levels dropped off towards the end, so there was nothing I could do about Shinya other than to continue lapping consistently to the flag. I felt so much more comfortable on the bike than I have done previously and the Bridgestone tyres definitely had an advantage over some of the other riders. I had to ride really hard today, in fact I didn't even look at my pit board until halfway through, so there's still more work to be done as we had to push a lot to get out of the turns fast enough. Thankfully it paid off and fifth place is my best result yet in MotoGP, so I'm really happy."

Chris Vermeulen - Suzuki - 4th

"I got a good start and was scrapping with the Kawasakis -- which seemed like they were surprisingly fast today -- and got held up by them a bit. I managed to get past Ant West and then started to catch John Hopkins, but I started to have some issues with front grip and had to change the way I was riding the bike. Once I got past John it felt like I had nothing left and the situation was getting worse -- which was awful as the race was only about seven laps old! I kept my head down and worked out the best way to ride and how to try to preserve the tyre. At one stage I thought about coming in, but I worked it out and managed to get home in sixth place to get some points. I'd like to congratulate Loris on his podium today. It was good to see him come back like that after his injury and I'm very happy for him!"

Marco Melandri - Marlboro Ducati - 7th

"The first ten laps were really difficult because I got a bad start and I didn't have a good feeling. I couldn't push the bike on the way in or the way out of the corners because the bike wasn't hooking up and it felt nervous. Gradually as the fuel load lightened and the tyres got up to temperature the grip improved and became more precise. I managed to improve my pace lap by lap and caught the group ahead of me, then made some passes. It's a shame I lost more than ten seconds over the opening laps because we could have had a really good result today."

Alex de Angelis - Gresini Honda - 8th

"Even I finished the race as the best of the RC212V satellite riders, today's result isn't too satisfying because we were expecting to finish in the top six. We weren't too far off that target but this wasn't the race we'd imagined. Unfortunately after the first lap, when I lost several positions, I made several passes but lost the position to other riders who were faster down the straights. Tomorrow we'll make the most of the test here at Brno to continue to improve ahead of the San Marino Grand Prix, which is of special importance to me."

James Toseland - Tech 3 Yamaha - 13th

"It was a difficult race and the result is clearly not where we want to be. I don't want to be fighting at the back of the top 15, and neither does my team or Yamaha and it is disappointing. All I can do is go out there with whatever I have got underneath me and give it my maximum and I did that. But this team and Yamaha deserve to be higher up and today wasn't good enough. It would be easy to let my head drop but I have never been that type of rider and I am not going to start now. I was reasonably happy with my start but I had a few moments with the front tyre on the first couple of laps and I soon realised that I was at my maximum and that I wasn't going to be able to do much more. It is disappointing because I have slipped out of the top ten in the standings and that was one of my big goals before the start of the season. We have got to keep working hard as a team and hope that Michelin can quickly turn it around for the rest of the season so we can try and get back into that top ten and keep the morale up of the team. Colin had even more problems than me so it must have been tough for him, but this is the situation we are in. We will all keep pushing hard and see what we can do."

2008 Brno MotoGP Race Results

1 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 43'28.841
2 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 15.004
3 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 21.689
4 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 25.859
5 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 29.465
6 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 30.608
7 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 36.453
8 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 36.750
9 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 38.822
10 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 39.573
11 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 39.610
12 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 40.892
13 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 1'11.490
14 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 1'21.133
15 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 1'37.038
16 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 1'38.407

Not classified
C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 16 Lap

2008 MotoGP World Championship standings

1 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 237
2 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 187
3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team 172
4 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 120
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP 110
6 Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha 102
7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 99
8 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team 84
9 Shinya NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini 83
10 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 77
11 James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha 75
12 Toni ELIAS SPA Alice Team 66
13 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 49
14 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team 42
15 Marco MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 41
16 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 40
17 John HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team 37
18 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team 33
19 Ben SPIES USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 10
20 Jamie HACKING USA Kawasaki Racing Team 5
21 Tadayuki OKADA JPN Repsol Honda Team 2