Dani completes a perfect GP with pole, a circuit record and victory, whilst Aoyama came fourth

DANI PEDROSA

(1^st.): “I was not thinking about winning this race to be honest, and I thought that in the end Porto, De Puniet and myself would be fighting for the race. However, I got into a good rhythm, the team told me on the boards I was going well, and I was able to open up a little gap and bit by bit I got away and that allowed me to relax a little at the end and save the tyres. I am very happy, I did not expect to start the World Championship like this. I feel priviledged to be here and very happy because the team has worked perfectly for me and we have communicated very well and the bike has responded superbly. Now we have to continue with the same philosophy and not relax because every race is different which we saw with the fall in Jerez”.

HIROSHI AOYAMA

(4^th): “I am very happy because after coming 11th in South Africa and scoring, the fall in Jerez left me very disappointed. To come fourth now makes me very happy. What’s more Dani won and the whole team is happy; I want to congratulate Dani because he rode an incredible race.”

ALBERTO PUIG

(Team manager): “It was a very good race. The victory of Dani surprised us a lot, but after the qualifying sessions we knew he could do very well. Everything is going very well and our objective remains for Dani to keep learning, but if he wins races – all the better. We have to keep this up now, Hro also did very well, we are very pleased with him”.

CLASSIFICATION FRENCH GP

1 Dani Pedrosa Honda 43”03.338

2 Randy de Puniet Aprilia a 7”771

3 Toni Elías  Honda a 19”233

4   Hiroshi Aoyama Honda a 20”427

5 Alex De Angelis Aprilia a 21”175

6 Anthony West Aprilia a 24”269

7 Fonsi Nieto Aprilia            a 38”537

8 Franco Battaini Aprilia a 39”827

9 Alex Debón  Honda a 42”589

10 Joan Olivé Aprilia a 47”541

250 CC. CHAMPIONSHIP

1 Randy de Puniet    Francia  60

2 Dani Pedrosa      España  50

3 Fonsi Nieto                        España  34

4 Roberto Rolfo        Italia        32

5 Alex de Angelis     RSM       32

6 Toni Elías               España   28

7 Alex Debón            España   28

8 Sebastian Porto    Argentina 25